TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced that the world’s child mortality decreased by 49 percent in 2013. The decline marks the most significant achievement in the last quarter-century.
“We’re building momentum in many countries in the poorest parts of the world,” said Dr. Mickey Chopra, UNICEF’s head of global programs, as reported by PBS.org on Tuesday.
However, the decline is still under UNICEF’s global target, which is to be down by two-thirds in 2015. In 2013, around 6.5 million children died of preventable diseases. The figure dropped from 6.6 million in 2012 and 12.7 million in 1990. Some 17,000 deaths were caused by malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria, pneumonia and other diseases.
UNICEF reported child mortality was twice higher in poor environment than in wealthy families. Based on a survey, the agency found that the lowest mortality was in children born from educated mothers.
According to UNICEF, a country’s poor status does not guarantee high child mortality rate because eight out of 60 poor countries in the world have succeeded in reducing their child mortality rate, including Bangladesh, Liberia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Timor Leste, Nigeria and Eritrea.
RINDU P. HESTYA | PBS.ORG
