UNICEF released their report, Progress for Children: Beyond Averages. The report highlights the child-related Millennium Development Goals and brings with it both good news and bad.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said, “The MDGs helped the world realize tremendous progress for children—but they also showed us how many children we are leaving behind.”
With the current progress rate and the projected population growth, these are the areas of improvement and the consequences which we could face:
- By 2030, 68 million more children under five will die from mostly preventable causes
- In 2030, an estimated 119 million children will still be chronically malnourished
- Half a billion people will still be defecating in the open, which in 2030 will pose serious risks to children’ health
However, we are making great progress in many areas. Since UNICEF began reporting in 1990:
- Underweight and chronic malnutrition has dropped by 42 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively among children under five
- 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources
- Maternal mortality has decreased by 45 percent
As the world transitions from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals, Shot@Life will continue to support the work of the UN to ensure that children around the world have access to vaccines and we work together to childhood deaths due to preventable disease.