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UN PhotoUNICEF / GLOBAL CHILD DEATHS
STORY: UNICEF / GLOBAL CHILD DEATHS
TRT: 02:04
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: FILE
FILE - 2019 - PHILIPPINES
1. Med shot, child wrapped in a blanket is held by its mothers
2. Close up, young child in its caretaker’s arms
FILE - 2021 - KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
3. Close up, young child in its caretaker’s arms
4. Close up, young child in its caretaker’s arms
FILE - 2021 - INDIA
5. Wide shot, track past pregnant woman in hospital
FILE - 2018 - BANGLADESH
6. Med shot, 6 months old baby being weighed at a nutrition centre (OTP)
FILE - 2021 - SOUTH SUDAN
7. Med shot, health worker measures child for signs of malnutrition
FILE - 2018 - BANGLADESH
8. Close up, 6 months old baby being fed nut based therapeutic treatment at a nutrition centre (OTP)
FILE - 2017 - AFGHANISTAN
9. Close up, a child receives vitamin A from a health worker
FILE - 2021 - BANGLADESH
10. Med shot, mothers line up with their young children as they wait for measles rubella vaccination
FILE - 2019 - PHILIPPINES
11. Wide shot, Nurse interviews parents; other parents and children come in and out of a health centre
FILE - 2019 - YEMEN
12. Med shot, Two women and a child at the waiting area of a health centre
FILE - 2021 - YEMEN
13. Med shot, A health worker talks to a father as he holds his toddler son at a health facility
FILE - 2023 - ABUJA, NIGERIA
14. Close up, mother grabs her young daughter
FILE - 2021 - NEPAL
15. Wide shot, A community health worker takes vaccines in a large cooler box to hard-to-reach mountain communities
FILE - 2020 - BANGLADESH
16. Wide shot, several community health worker cross a suspension bridge to take vaccines in cooler boxes to hard-to-reach communities
FILE - 2023 - NEPAL
17. Med shot, A community health worker walks up rocky steps
FILE - 2023 - NIGERIA
18. Wide shot, community health worker enters a home
FILE - 2019 - PHILIPPINES
19. Med shot, community health worker brings vaccines to children
FILE - 2023 - ECUADOR
20. Med shot, A community health worker outreaching children with health services in rural area
21. Close up, A community health worker takes notes during a visit to a child in rural area
FILE - 2020 - BANGLADESH
22. Med shot, Health workers check in children who are going to get vaccinated in rural community
FILE - 2023 - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
23. Close up, A Community health worker lifts a cooler box to continue taking vaccines to displaced children
24. Close up, A child received the polio oral vaccine
FILE - 2019 - PHILIPPINES
25. Close up, A health worker puts a bandage on the arm of a young child who just got vaccinated
FILE - 2023 - ABUJA, NIGERIA
26. Med shot, A health worker walks across the hall of a health centre holding papers and a cooler box
27. Med shot, A mothers throws her child in the air
The number of children who died before their fifth birthday has reached a historic low, dropping to 4.9 million in 2022, according to the latest estimates released today by the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).
The report reveals that more children are surviving today than ever before, with the global under-5 mortality rate declining by 51 per cent since 2000. Several low- and lower-middle-income countries have outpaced this decline, showing that progress is possible when resources are sufficiently allocated to primary health care, including child health and well-being. For example, the findings show that Cambodia, Malawi, Mongolia, and Rwanda have reduced under-5 mortality by over 75 percent since 2000.
But the findings also show that despite this progress, there is still a long road ahead to end all preventable child and youth deaths. In addition to the 4.9 million lives lost before the age of 5 – nearly half of which were newborns – the lives of another 2.1 million children and youth aged 5-24 were also cut short. Most of these deaths were concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
This tragic loss of life is primarily due to preventable or treatable causes, such as preterm birth, complications around the time of birth, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malaria. Many lives could have been saved with better access to high-quality primary health care, including essential, low-cost interventions, such as vaccinations, availability of skilled health personnel at birth, vaccinations, support for early and continued breastfeeding, and diagnosis and treatment of childhood illnesses.
Improving access to quality health services and saving children’s lives from preventable deaths requires investment in education, jobs, and decent working conditions for health workers to deliver primary health care, including community health workers.
As trusted community members, community health workers play an important role in reaching children and families in every community with life-saving health services like vaccinations, testing and medicine for deadly yet treatable illnesses, and nutrition support. They should be integrated into primary health care systems and paid fairly, well trained, and equipped with the means to provide the highest quality of care.
Studies show that child deaths in the highest-risk countries could drop substantially if community-based child survival interventions could reach those in need. This package of interventions alone would save millions of children and would deliver care closer to home. Integrated management of childhood illnesses – especially the leading causes of post-neonatal death, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, and malaria – is needed to improve child health and survival.
While the global numbers show welcome signs of progress, there are also substantive threats and inequities that jeopardize child survival in many parts of the world. These threats include increasing inequity and economic instability, new and protracted conflicts, the intensifying impact of climate change, and the fallout of COVID-19, which could lead to stagnation or even reversal of gains and the continued needless loss of children’s lives. Children born into the poorest households are twice as likely to die before the age of 5 compared to the wealthiest households, while children living in fragile or conflict-affected settings are almost three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children elsewhere.
At current rates, 59 countries will miss the SDG under-5 mortality target, and 64 countries will fall short of the newborn mortality goal. That means an estimated 35 million children will die before reaching their fifth birthday by 2030—a death toll that will largely be borne by families in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia or in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
The report also notes large gaps in data, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, where the mortality burden is high. Data and statistical systems must be improved to better track and monitor child survival and health, including indicators on mortality and health via household surveys, birth, and death registration through Health Management Information Systems (HMIS), and Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS).
