Saving the World

What we need is the political will

More than 10 million children under the age of 5 die each year. And according to the Global Health Council at least 6.6 million of those deaths are preventable if affordable health interventions are made available to the mothers and children who need them. If this happened the Millennium Development Goal to significantly reduce child mortality by 2015 could be achieved. According to the Global Health council only political will is needed to prevent most deaths of children under the age of 5, even in the poorest countries. To do this the following steps need to be taken: Investment in newborn and child health must increase substantially to achieve the goal of saving an additional 6.6 million children each year. Resources should be targeted to the countries and populations where child mortality is greatest. Priority should be given to interventions of proven effectiveness, implemented according to population-specific assessments of the causes of childhood death and disease. According to the Global Health Council the Millennium Development Goals need to be scrupulously monitored, regularly reported and routinely evaluated. Because saving these children is just the first step toward the goal we all share – creating a world where child survival can be taken for granted and families everywhere will be confident that their children will strive and survive. The Global Health Council’s position paper on Child Health – “Our Global Responsibility to the World’s Children” – is available at www.globalhealth.org