The global child mortality rate has dropped significantly since 2000, which is attributed to increased investments in strengthening primary health systems to benefit women and children. Still, millions of children and youth are dying every year worldwide.
According to a report released by the United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), an estimated 5 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2021. The sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 56 per cent of all under-5 deaths in 2021, and southern Asia for 26 per cent of the total.
In addition, the UN IGME estimates revealed that 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5 24 years died in the same year, which means a child or youth died every 4.4 seconds in 2021.
In a separate report revealed released on January 10, the Group estimated that as many as 1.9 million babies were stillborn during in 2021. The sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia also accounted for highest number of stillbirths in 2021, 77 per cent of all stillbirths occurring in these two regions.
"Tragically, many of these deaths could have been prevented with equitable access and high-quality maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health care," the group noted in its report.
Vidhya Ganesh, UNICEF Director of the Division of Data Analytics, Planning and Monitoring, underscored that need for stronger political will and "targeted investment in equitable access to primary health care for every woman and child."
The UN reports, however, showed a decrease in death rate across all ages globally since 2000. It showed a 50 per cent drop in the global under-5 mortality rate, a 36 per cent decrease in mortality rates among older children and youth worldwide, and 35 per cent drop in the stillbirth rate since the start of the century.
The positive outcomes were attributed to improvement in primary health systems to benefit women, children and young people, resulting from increased investments.
Concerningly, the progress in terms of child mortality rate has very slow since 2010, and the agencies are concerned that 54 countries will fall short of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals target for under-5 mortality.
The experts estimated that almost 59 million children and youth will die before 2030, and nearly 16 million babies will be lost to stillbirth, if swift action is not taken to improve health services.
Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization (WHO), highlighted that there are vast inequities in terms of accessibility to and availability of lifesaving health services for children.
The UN report said that children born in sub-Saharan Africa have the highest risk of childhood death in the world 15 times higher than those born in Europe and northern America.
Women in sub-Saharan Africa are also higher risk of having a stillborn baby. Almost half of all stillbirths in 2021 were reported from the sub-Saharan Africa. "The risk of a woman having a stillborn baby in sub-Saharan Africa is 7 times more likely than in Europe and North America," the UN report said.
Most child deaths globally occur in the first five years, of which half happened within the first month of life, mostly due to premature birth and complications during labour.
More than 40 per cent of stillbirths also occurred during labour, stated the UN report, noting that most of these deaths can be prevented with access to quality maternal care throughout pregnancy and birth.
Children who survive past their first 28 days face the threat of infectious diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, the report stated.
