Tuesday, January 29, 2008

One in Five Children Die Before Their Fifth Birthday

The 2008 UNICEF State of the World's Children Report highlights child mortality in Liberia and West Africa, pointing towards the need for better long-term nutrition and primary healthcare programs:

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Nine of the 12 countries with the world's highest rate of child deaths are in the region, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) State of the World's Children 2008 which was released on 22 January.

According to the report, the region is the only one in the world showing "no progress" on reaching the Millennium Development Goal to reduce under-five mortality by two thirds by 2015.

While the number of children dying before their fifth birthday has declined by almost a quarter globally since 1990, in West and Central Africa it dropped by only 1.2 percent, the report showed. On average 18.6 percent of children in West Africa die before their fifth birthday, while one in 10 will die by their first.

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See: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SHES-7BAUB7?OpenDocument
Full Report: http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_42117.html

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