Goal 4: reduce child mortality
Goal 4: reduce child mortality
Goal 4 is to reduce by two-thirds the proportion of children who die before the age of five. Currently, we could prevent about 70% of newborn deaths with available low-cost interventions, such as antibiotics, insecticide-treated bednets and nutritional supplements.
In our world today:
- Over 10 million children die each year from preventable causes, such as AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malnutrition.
- The target of halving the proportion of underweight children could be missed unless we expand basic health services in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Half of the deaths of under-five children occur in sub-Saharan Africa, even if only 20% of the world's children live in this region.
Progress on Goal 4:
- Child mortality has declined by 15% globally thanks to life-saving interventions such as measles vaccines and mosquito nets.
- Child survival has improved greatly in Latin American and the Caribbean, South-Eastern and Eastern Asia, and Northern Africa.
Photo by Aldon Scott McLeod
