7th May, 2015
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Image taken from the cover of the report. |
Despite a dramatic decrease in the global mortality rate of under fives since 1990, growing inequality between the rich and poor in many cities means in most developing countries, the poorest children are twice as likely to die as the richest children in the same city.
Save the Children’s latest State of the World’s Mothers Report – which looks at maternal and childhood health – found that while the mortality rate of children aged under five had nearly halved between 1990 and 2013, 17,000 still died every day and that, increasingly, these deaths are occurring in city slums where, according to World Health Organization data, nearly a billion people live.
It found that in some countries the poorest children in urban areas are up to three to five times – or even more – likely to die before the age of five than the richest children. These "urban survival gaps" are highest in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
"Lifesaving health care may only be a stone’s throw away, but the poorest mothers and children often cannot get the care they need," the report says.
Meanwhile, among capital cities in high income countries, Washington DC – capital of the US – had the highest infant mortality rate at 6.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013, a rate that represents an all-time low for the District of Columbia yet is still three times the rates found in Tokyo and Stockholm. In the poorest area of Washington DC, children are about 10 times as likely to die before their first birthday than children in the richest part of the city.
As in past years, the report – the 16th the organisation has produced – ranks nations according to where mothers and children fare best. Of the record 179 countries included this year, nine out of the top 10 were in Europe (Australia was only odd one out, ranked at number nine) with Norway, Finland and Iceland topping the list. Almost all of the bottom 11 were African nations (with the exception of Haiti, tied at number 169 with Sierra Leone).
In the worst countries, one woman of every 30 dies from pregnancy-related causes while one child in eight dies before their fifth birthday.
With 2015 seeing the end of the Millennium Development Goals, Save the Children is urging a specific commitment aimed at ending preventable child and maternal deaths to be included in any post-MDG framework and is calling for universal health care to be made available around the world, saying quality basic preventative and curative health services "must be made more accessible and affordable".
You can download the report here.
– DAVID ADAMS
