Say Yes, Winter 2008: Did you know?

These facts are taken from Progress for Children: A World Fit For Children Statistical Review Number 6, published by UNICEF in December 2007.

The growth of nearly a third of children under five in the developing world is stunted.
In 20 developing countries, more than 5% of under–fives are overweight.
Rural children are twice as likely to be underweight as urban children.
60% of newborns in the developing world are not weighed.
The global under–five mortality rate has fallen by 60% since 1960. In 2006, for the first time, fewer than 10 million under–fives died.
Newborn deaths account for 37% all under–five deaths — initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth is critical for newborn health and well–being.
Newborns in developing countries are eight times more likely to die than newborns in industrialised countries.
The births of 51 million children born in 2006 have not yet been registered.
A woman’s life–time risk of maternal death is 1/22 in sub–Saharan Africa; in the industrialised countries it is 1/8,000.
93 million children of primary school age are out of school worldwide — down from 115 million in 2002.
One in six children of secondary school age worldwide attends primary school because he or she started school late or had to repeat grades.
Only 13 developing countries have secondary school participation ratios of 90% or more.
About two thirds of countries reached gender parity in primary education by 2005. About a third achieved gender parity in secondary education.
The largest gender gaps in primary education are in West/Central Africa, the Middle East/North Africa and South Asia.
Pneumonia kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
Only about one third of children with diarrhoeal diseases in the developing world receive the recommended treatment.
Between 1990 and 2006, the number of polio cases worldwide fell from 23,366 to 2,000.
A sixth of all children between 5 and 14 of age throughout the world are thought to be engaged in child labour.
UNICEF defines children between 5 and 11 years of age as being engaged in child labour if they perform one hour of economic labour or 28 hours of domestic labour per week. Children between 12 and14 years of age are considered to be engaged in child labour if they perform 14 hours of economic labour or 28 hours of domestic labour.
The number of people living with HIV in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) increased from 1,300 in 1990 to 1,700,000 in 2006. In the Middle East and North Africa, the number incrased from 30,000 to 550,000.
Worldwide, more than 60 million women aged between 20 and 24 were married or in union before they reached the age of 18. Child marriage affects 34% of women in developing countries exluding China. In most countries with adequate historical data, there has been no significant change in the percentage.
Some 1.5 billion children — two thirds of the world’s child population — live in the 42 countries which were affected by violent, high–intensity conflict between 2002 and 2006.
In a survey of 29 countries, an average of 86% of children between 2 and14 years of age experienced violent discipline at home.
During surveys in 57 developing countries, half of girls and women (39% in Turkey) responded that a husband or partner is justified in beating his wife under certain circumstances.
The percentage of children between 2 and 9 years of age who screened positive on disability in a 2005 UNICEF survey ranged from 2% in Uzbekistan to 35% in Djibouti.
It is estimated that there are 14.2 million refugees worldwide, of whom 41% are believed to be children.

Progress for Children: A World Fit For Children Statistical Review Number 6 provides a clear presentation of a wealth of existing information and data, some of it published for the first time. It concludes that life is getting better for the World’s children and women — but not quickly enough to realise the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to achieve the targets adopted by World leaders at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children (UNSSC) in 2002.

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SAY YES, WINTER 2008

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