Better chances of survival for Arab children.

Star AMMAN (Star)--Even with child mortality reduced by nearly two thirds in the past decade, some 600,000 children under-five continue to die every year in the Arab World. At least half of these deaths are easily preventable through improved nutrition and immunization interventions, says the Progress for Children Report, launched today by UNICEF. This new report measures the advancement of governments in meeting their obligations agreed to at the UN Special Session on Children in 2002 and addresses one of the Millennium Development Goals objectives to reduce under-five mortality rates by two thirds between 1990 and 2015. The Millennium Development Goals set precise standards for measuring results in developing countries and for rich countries to help fund development programmes. Current UNICEF projections show that some 53 developing countries will meet the goal. In the Middle East and North Africa Region, two-thirds of the countries are on track to meet this objective as of 2002.The Arab World showed an impressive decline in infant mortality and under-five mortality rates in the last decade, from an average 80 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 58 in 2002. The Arab region was the first in the developing world where most countries reduced mortality rates of under-five children to the target of 70 per thousand by 1990, well ahead of the global goal. But the region is still faced with the challenge of preventing child deaths caused by infectious, parasitic, and communicable diseases, often associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, poor sanitary conditions and early child malnutrition. While the region has done well in reducing child mortality, especially if compared to other regions (East Asia and Pacific, Developing countries, sub-Saharan Africa) there has been a decade of stagnation in sustained reduction of neonatal deaths. Some countries that have performed acceptably in the region will now need to devote greater efforts to curbing infant and perinatal mortality while other high mortality nations will need to reinvigorate their basic child survival strategies. UNICEF considers infant and child mortality rates the most important indicators of a nation's development. "Taken as a whole, the Arab world has witnessed a far faster reduction in young child mortality than we have seen in other regions. However, good regional averages obscure a few countries where young child mortality remains surprisingly high. We have also seen examples of countries reversing their progress. This remains a vulnerable region, and one in which we can take little comfort in averages", said Thomas McDermott, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.With malaria, diarrhoea, respiratory infections, measles and prenatal mortality still among the biggest child killers in the world, the Arab World needs to improve the quality and access to basic health services for children, expand immunization and adequate antenatal and Emergency Obstetric care for women.

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