By Olufunmilayo Akande
Approximately 6.3 million children worldwide die under the age of five, which is about 17,000 deaths every day. The causes of these deaths range from malaria, pneumonia to preterm birth complications. However, the main catalyst to under-five deaths is malnutrition.
Twenty-nine years ago, the world made a promise to children – ‘to protect and promote their rights to survive and thrive, to learn and grow, to make their voices heard and to reach their full potential’. This was at the 1989 Convention on the Rights of Children. Nonetheless, despite the many successes achieved till date, many children are still deprived of their rights and benefits to development. Today, 16,000 children worldwide die each day before celebrating their fifth birthday as a result of preventable causes linked to malnutrition.
The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 was aimed at reducing by two-thirds the under-five child mortality rate, between 1990 and 2015. This was not achieved despite the decline in global under-five mortality rate from 90 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 46 in 2013 – approximately 49% decrease.
As of 2013, 6.3 million children worldwide died before the age of five with the majority being in low income countries in Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. The World Health Organization stated that children in Sub-Saharan African countries are more than 15 times more likely to die before the age of five than children in developed regions. Moreover, there is an unequal distribution of progress relating to global under-five child mortality as high-income countries in the Americas, European and the Western Pacific regions have experienced the most progress in decline in under-five mortality.
The main catalyst to under-five deaths is malnutrition.
The causes of these deaths are multifaceted ranging from malaria, pneumonia to preterm birth complications. However, the main catalyst to under-five deaths is malnutrition. It is reported that nearly half of all deaths in children under the age five are attributable to malnutrition. This translates into the unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year.
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Globally, more than 200 million children under-five years of age suffer from malnutrition as malnourished children are at a higher risk of death from common childhood illness such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Thus, tackling malnutrition in children has a crucial role in drastically reducing under-five mortality rate. Interventions to improve child nutrition such as promotion of optimal breastfeeding, provision of micronutrient supplementation and food fortification, among others, should be doubled particularly in regions most affected.
As the Post-MDG Development Agenda is in progress, saving the lives of children should become an utmost priority.
Therefore, as the Post-MDG Development Agenda is in progress, saving the lives of children should remain an utmost priority. With the newly drafted goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals highlighting nutrition as a focus area for global action, efforts should be intensified by stakeholders and leaders in every nation to work together in improving nutrition in children. In that way, gaps that remain can be bridged with the hope of putting an end to preventable under-five child deaths linked to malnutrition
