UN / UNDER-FIVE MORTALITY

The latest UN under-five mortality estimates released today by UNICEF show continued progress in reducing the number of children who don't live to see their fifth birthdays. However the tragedy of preventable child deaths continues. Some 22,000 children under five still die each day, with some 70 per cent of these deaths occurring in the first year of the child's life. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:28
• Production Date: 16 September 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HEALTH SERVICES; NUTRITION
• MAMS Id: U100916k

Description

STORY: UN / UNDER FIVE MORTALITY
TRT: 1.28
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 15 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE

Shotlist

NIGER - MAY 2009, NIGER

1. Various shot, health clinic

FILE – JUNE 2010, CHAD

2. Various shots, malnourished children Chad

FILE - 29 APRIL 2009 - BIHAR STATE, INDIA

3. Various shots, children

15 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Renee Van de Weerdt, UNICEF Chief of Maternal Newborn and Child Health:
“We have indeed seen very encouraging progress in the fourth Millennium Development Goal, reducing infant deaths. In 1990, the reference here for the Millennium Development Goals, there were more than twelve million children that would die every year before their fifth birthday. And in 2009 that number went down to a little more than eight million. So here we clearly know what needs to be done, and how to take it to scale.”

FILE - 16 DECEMBER 2009, IVORY COAST

5. Various shots, child being weighed

15 SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Renee Van de Weerdt, UNICEF Chief of Maternal Newborn and Child Health:
“If we look at some of the countries that have made progress, there are very interesting examples, such as Niger for example, which shows that even in the toughest, poorest places in this planet this can be done, and this should be done.”

FILE - JULY 2010, ZINDER PROVINCE, NIGER

7. Close up, baby crying
8. Tilt down, mother and 2 kids
9. Close up, baby suckling
10. Med shot, mother and child

FILE - 17 JULY 2010, HASSAKEH, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

11. Wide shot, mother with child
12. Wide shot, kid with doctors
13. Close up, kid on measuring device
14. Med shot, kids feet on measuring device
15. Wide shot, kid on weighing scales

Storyline

The latest United Nations under-five mortality estimates were released today by UNICEF and they show continued progress in reducing the number of children who don’t live to see their fifth birthdays.

According to these estimates, the total number of under-five deaths decreased globally from 1990 to 2009 from 12.4 million per year to 8.1 million. The global under-five mortality rate has dropped by a third over that period, from 89 deaths per 1,000 live births to 60 in 2009.

The good news is that these estimates suggest 12,000 fewer children are dying each day around the world compared to 1990.

SOUNDBITE (English) Renee Van de Weerdt, UNICEF Chief of Maternal Newborn and Child Health:
“We have indeed seen very encouraging progress in the fourth Millennium Development Goal, reducing infant deaths. In 1990, the reference here for the Millennium Development Goals, there were more than twelve million children that would die every year before their fifth birthday. And in 2009 that number went down to a little more than eight million. So here we clearly know what needs to be done, and how to take it to scale.”

However the tragedy of preventable child deaths continues. Some 22,000 children under five still die each day, with some 70 per cent of these deaths occurring in the first year of the child’s life.

Under-five mortality is increasingly concentrated in a few countries. About half of global under-five deaths occurred in just five countries in 2009: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and China.

SOUNDBITE (English) Renee Van de Weerdt, UNICEF Chief of Maternal Newborn and Child Health:
“If we look at some of the countries that have made progress, there are very interesting examples, such as Niger for example, which shows that even in the toughest, poorest places in this planet this can be done, and this should be done.”

The highest rates of child mortality continue to be found in sub-Saharan Africa, where 1 in 8 children dies before their fifth birthday--nearly 20 times the average for developed regions (1 in 167). Southern Asia has the second highest rates, with about 1 in 14 children dying before age five.

While the speed at which under-five mortality rates are declining improved for 2000 to 2009 compared to the previous decade, the under five deaths are still not decreasing fast enough --especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and Oceania--to achieve Millennium Development Goal target (of a two thirds decline between 1900 and 2015).

The new estimates were published in the 2010 report Levels & Trends in Child Mortality, issued by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME), and in a special commentary in The Lancet.

The estimates are the work of a number of UN system organizations that form the Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, and are developed with oversight and advice from independent experts from academic institutions.