SASKATOON – There is good news about the state of the world’s children, reports the United Nations agency, UNICEF.
In its annual report, the agency finds more than 100 of the developing nations are making significant progress to reach the goals set at the 1990 World Summit for Children. Only 14 nations in the world (including Saudi Arabia and the United States) have not signed the agreement to improve children’s lives.
“These achievements have not made the nightly news,” the agency said.
“But … such progress means that approximately 2.5 million fewer children will die in 1995 than in 1990. It means that tens of millions of children will be spared the insidious sabotage wrought on their development by malnutrition. And it means that at least three-quarters of a million fewer children each year will be disabled, blinded, crippled or mentally retarded.”
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The UNICEF report notes:
- Health – Measles, diarrhea and pneumonia account for over half of all child deaths in the developing world; cases of the first two and polio are decreasing; 80 percent immunization has been met or increased in most countries; life expectancy has improved from age 43 in 1960 to age 62 in 1990.
- Malnutrition – Worldwide, 26 million people suffer brain damage because of a lack of iodine in their or their mother’s diets. The solution is to add iodine to common salt and 58 developing countries will achieve the goal of 95 percent salt iodization by the end of this year. In the 1980s, half a million children a year were going blind from vitamin A deficiency. The countries with two-thirds of the children at risk are on track to eliminate the problem by the end of 1995.
- Education – Primary school enrolment for ages six to 11 has increased from half to three-quarters of all children in developing countries.
- Family planning – Births in developing countries have fallen from six per woman in 1960 to 3.8 per woman in 1990. Child deaths have halved in that same time to 107 dying for every 1,000 live births.
This report will be part of the discussion at the world summit for social development to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark in March. Some have questioned the optimistic numbers, saying Third World countries fabricate them or base them on the first day of school rather than an average of every day. And despite the achievements, a fifth of the world’s people still live in poverty.
