The United Nations on Tuesday raised concerns over the future of interventions aimed at reducing child deaths and stillbirths globally.
The UN explained that with the current funding crisis, and lack of the right policies and investments, gains recorded which led to the decline of child mortalities and stillbirths may be eroded.
This is coming after the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation in two separate reports released on Tuesday noted that the number of children dying globally before their fifth birthday declined to 4.8 million in 2023, while stillbirths declined modestly, remaining around 1.9 million.
The report added that since 2000, child deaths have dropped by more than half and stillbirths by over a third, fuelled by sustained investments in child survival worldwide.
“In 2022, the world reached a historic milestone when child deaths dropped slightly below 5 million for the first time. However, progress has slowed and too many children are still being lost to preventable causes,” the report said.
Reacting to the report in a joint statement, the UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, said without proper policies and the right investments, the gains could be eroded.
“Millions of children are alive today because of the global commitment to proven interventions, such as vaccines, nutrition, and access to safe water and basic sanitation.
“Bringing preventable child deaths to a record low is a remarkable achievement. But without the right policy choices and adequate investment, we risk reversing these hard-earned gains, with millions more children dying from preventable causes. We cannot allow that to happen,” Russel said.
On his part, the World Health Organisation Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, advocates improved collaboration to prevent child deaths and stillbirths.
“From tackling malaria to preventing stillbirths and ensuring evidence-based care for the tiniest babies, we can make a difference for millions of families.“In the face of global funding cuts, there is a need more than ever to step up collaboration to protect and improve children’s health,” he said.
According to the statement, decades of progress in child survival are now at risk as major donors have announced or indicated significant funding cuts to aid ahead.
“Reduced global funding for life-saving child survival programmes is causing health-care worker shortages, clinic closures, vaccination programme disruptions, and a lack of essential supplies, such as malaria treatments.
“These cuts are severely impacting regions in humanitarian crises, debt-stricken countries, and areas with already high child mortality rates. Global funding cuts could also undermine monitoring and tracking efforts, making it harder to reach the most vulnerable children, the Inter-agency Group warned.
“Even before the current funding crisis, the pace of progress on child survival had already slowed. Since 2015, the annual rate of reduction of under-five mortality has slowed by 42%, and stillbirth reduction has slowed by 53%, compared to 2000–2015,” it read.
