Child health-related MDGs
MDG 4 “Reduce child mortality” is the MDG most directly related to child health. The target set for it is to “reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate”. For this target, three indicators have been selected to help track progress:
1. Under-five mortality rate;
2. Infant mortality rate; and
3. Proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles.
MDGs are inter-related. Another MDG which is linked to neonatal and child health is MDG5 to improve maternal health. Among the targets set for MDGs, other targets of key importance to the child health work in the Region are:
Target 1C “Halve between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger” under MDG1 (Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger), with indicator 1.8 on “Prevalence of underweight children under 5 years of age”;
Target 6C “Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases” under MDG6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases), with indicators 6.6 on “Incidence and death rates associated from malaria”, 6.7 “Proportion of children under-five sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets” and 6.8 “Proportion of children under-five with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malaria drugs”.
The Fifty-fifth World Health Assembly in resolution WHA55.19 of 18 May 2002 recognized that “maternal, child and adolescent health and development have a major impact on socioeconomic development”. It urged Member States to “strengthen and scale up efforts to achieve the development goals of the Millennium Declaration”, in particular those related to reduction of maternal and child mortality and malnutrition, and continue to advocate child health and development as one of the public health priorities.
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