Health
We work to ensure the survival and health of children and women
The challenge
UNICEF works with partners to support the PNG Government improve the health and ensure the survival of children and women.
Despite showing social and economic progress since independence in 1975, considerable challenges persist. The maternal mortality has reduced from 470 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 171 per 100,000 live births in 2019. Child mortality stands at 44.8 per 1,000 live births, a significant reduction from 89 per 1,000 live births in 1990. However, the country’s maternal and new-born mortality rate remains one of the highest in the Western Pacific region and only about 45 percent of women gave birth at health facilities in 2023. More than 22 newborns die for every 1,000 births due to inadequate obstetric and newborn care. Only 5% of health facilities are equipped to provide emergency obstetric care 24/7.
Up to 82 percent of deaths in children under the age of 5 are caused by endemic and vaccine-preventable infections.
In 2023, routine immunisation coverage hovered around 35 percent which was far below the recommended level of 90 percent.
In 2023, about one million children under the age of 5, which is 72% of the target group, were vaccinated against measles, rubella, and polio. They also received Vitamin A. However, half of all children born in PNG are still at risk of diseases that vaccines can prevent because not enough children are getting vaccinated across the country.
Solution
UNICEF works closely with the Papua New Guinea government and key stakeholders to ensure that children, adolescent girls and women of reproductive age, including those affected by climate change and humanitarian crises, have access to, and use, high-impact and quality health services while adopting healthy behaviours. We support the strengthening of health-care institutions and workforces to provide quality, reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health services.
