Increased resources needed to continue progress lowering child mortality rates

Jan 24 2013

"The last decade has seen extraordinary progress with child mortality rates coming down significantly all over the world. Yet 6.9 million children still die each year, most from preventable causes," Raymond Chambers, founder and co-chair of Malaria No More and the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, writes in a Forbes opinion piece, published in conjunction with the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. "We have just three years to go to achieve the fourth Millennium Development Goal, which was to reduce deaths of children under five by two-thirds compared to the 1990 numbers -- 12 million annual deaths," he notes, adding, "That means we need to bring that annual number down to four million deaths or less."

"We have the tools, or can easily get the tools to where they are needed if the recommendations of the U.N. Commission on Life-Saving Commodities are implemented," but "we should recognize that the gains and the available tools are not answers by themselves," Chambers writes. "To achieve MDG 4 there is a need for increased funding, both from domestic and international sources, as well as an acute targeting of resources," he states. "We know from malaria that the return on investment is high," he continues, concluding, "While we ramp up financing for the other major child killer diseases, which we have to do, we must also ensure we sustain and expand the gains already made" in fighting malaria (1/22).