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Press Release
Press release issued by the UN Department
of Public Information
UN Finds One in Twelve Children Dies
Before Age Five
Updated Report Asserts That Healthy
and Educated Children Do Not Result from Economic Development
- They Drive It
GENEVA / NEW YORK, 18 April 2002 - One
out of twelve children will die before age five, almost
all from preventable causes, the United Nations announced
today as it released an updated version of its landmark
publication on the world's children. The child mortality
rate and other statistics contained in the report lend
gravity to the basic United Nations assertion that serious
investment in the rights and development of children
is essential to overcoming poverty.
| Read
We the Children in pdf format |
We the Children: Meeting the Promises of the World
Summit for Children, a report by UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, is the most comprehensive study ever released
on the condition of children. Backed with data from
nearly 150 countries, it shows that the disparities
and pervasive poverty of today are directly related
to under-investment in young people, especially their
health, education and protection. The report says that
if governments are truly serious about reducing poverty,
then they must make children their first priority.
The report was compiled for the May 8-10 UN General
Assembly Special Session on Children, where more than
70 world leaders and 170 national delegations will commit
to a series of concrete goals on the survival, development
and protection of young people. According to UNICEF,
the meeting is a critical follow-up to the recent International
Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey,
Mexico. While the Monterrey conference led to a pledge
of substantially more development assistance from donor
countries, the Special Session on Children will help
define where a large share of that money should go.
We the Children provides a detailed look at the progress
made on behalf of children since 1990's World Summit
on Children, where governments agreed to specific goals
on the development of children. Systematic and rigorous
monitoring has left an indelible imprint of where the
world has succeeded, where it has failed - and why.
The overall results reflect the world's failure to invest
adequately in young people: over 10.5 million still
die each year, often from readily preventable causes;
an estimated 150 million are malnourished; and over
120 million never go to school, the majority of them
girls.
"Clearly, the world's children have not had the
promised 'first call' on resources - despite the extraordinary
growth of the global economy. Consequently, much more
needs to be done now, and with the greatest urgency,"
the report says. "National leaders must act on
the past decade's most important lesson: that investing
in children from the earliest years is neither a charitable
gesture nor an extravagance, but is rather the best
way to ensure long-term development."
A Roadmap for the Future
The Special Session on Children comes in the middle
of an important series of international conferences
that are drawing a roadmap for reducing poverty world-wide.
For the Special Session, the framework for moving forward
is spelled out in documents like We the Children and
the draft outcome document, A World Fit for Children.
We the Children is a revised and updated version of
a draft report first released last June in preparation
for the Special Session on Children, which was postponed
from last September by the attacks on New York and Washington,
DC. The 102-page report and an all-new statistical appendix
- complete with colour graphics, statistical tables
and charts - analyzes the progress of countries over
the last decade in areas of child heath, education,
nutrition and protection.
"Thanks to work at the national and international
levels, the knowledge and guidelines are already in
place," says Patricia Durrant, Jamaica's Permanent
Representative to the United Nations, who is chairing
the Special Session's preparatory process. "What
we need is the commitment of leaders, both financial
and political, to see that children are given the priority
they deserve. We will address this at the Special Session.
"
Investing in Children is Key
In asserting that economic development and social cohesion
start with investing in children, the UN is drawing
on a proven historical record. During Europe's era of
rapid progress in the 19th century, countries across
the continent invested in universal primary education
and broad public access to healthcare. In the 20th century,
several East Asian countries successfully used similar
policies. With comprehensive funding and political will,
the same is possible in the 21st century for countries
that are home to the estimated one billion people living
on less than US$1 a day.
The programmes to help children are straightforward
and highly effective: immunization, nutrition, sanitation,
and good quality education for every child. The economic
benefits of such investments are well-documented. A
1998 study by the Rand Corporation found that for every
$1 invested in the physical and cognitive development
of infants and young children, there is a $7 return,
mainly from future savings on costs such as health care,
remedial education, unemployment and crime. Other studies
show large-scale returns on investment in health and
education.
"Unfortunately, many governments don't give children
the resources they deserve - and that goes for both
developing countries and the donor nations that provide
funds," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director
of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF.) "So
we will continue to state what may seem obvious to many.
Healthy and educated children are a critical force driving
economic development. If we want to overcome poverty,
that means, first and foremost, we must invest in them."
We the Children: Major Trends
We the Children and its statistical supplement present
the results of the largest effort to survey, extract
and analyze information on how well the world has kept
its promises to women and children. Some examples of
goals set in 1990 and where the world stood in 2000:
- Infant and under-five mortality: reduce this rate
by one-third. The latest figures show the global average
has declined by 11 per cent, from 93 to 83 deaths
per 1,000 live births. More than 60 countries achieved
the target of one-third reduction. But the mortality
rates are extremely high in Africa and South Asia,
with malnutrition playing a role in half of all deaths.
- Child malnutrition: reduce severe and moderate malnutrition
in under-fives by half. The report shows that underweight
prevalence - the key measure for determining malnutrition
- has only declined from 32 to 28 per cent in developing
countries. These high levels pose a major challenge
to development and expose children to myriad diseases
while also hindering their complete development.
- Primary education: universal access to basic education,
with completion of primary school by 80 per cent of
children. By 2000, around 82 per cent of primary school
age children are enrolled and/or attend class - up
from 80 per cent in 1990. Yet completion rates remain
much lower - a quarter of all those who start school
drop out by grade five. Moreover, nearly 120 million
children do not go to school at all.
* * *
For further information, please contact:
Liza Barrie,
UNICEF Media Chief, New York (212) 326-7593
Patsy Robertson,
UNICEF Media, New York (212) 326-7270
Laufey Love, UN Department of Public Information, New
York (212) 963-3507
Alfred Ironside,
UNICEF Media, New York (212) 326-7261
View and order the Special Session video b-roll at http://www.unicef.org/broadcast/brolls/specialsession/
A live satellite news feed will be available twice
daily during the Special Session.
Learn more at:
http://www.unicef.org/broadcast/feeds/
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