The
world cannot persist with business as usual when every year nearly 11 children
die before their fifth birthday from easily preventable and readily treatable
causes – almost 90 percent of these deaths occur in 42 countries of South Asia
and Sub Saharan Africa. According to Amie Batson, USAID
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health, this road map is taking in
the accumulated wisdom across our community.
A National Conference
on Child Survival, involving experts, official’s donors and NGOS from different
parts of the world, will be held in New Delhi on November 29-30 to draw up a
roadmap for child survival over the next ten years.
In the past last 40 years,
thanks to new vaccines and improved health care practices, child deaths have
been reduced by more than 50 per cent. UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake
speaks on the first day of the international forum Child Survival Call to
Action, in Washington, D.C., USA.
Yet millions of
children still die every year from preventable causes, mostly in sub-Saharan
Africa and south Asia. Child Survival Call to Action challenges the world to
make specific plans to reduce child mortality to below 20 child deaths per
1,000 live births in every country by 2035
