Global Health Progress

International Day of the African Child

June 16, 2008
Andrew Barrer, Executive Director, US Coalition for Child Survival

This year's International Day of the African Child offers some cause for optimism and a call for renewed energy to be directed toward improving the lives of millions of children in the developing world.

Consider the good news first: Low cost health solutions are available to alleviate a range of highly preventable diseases that plague children throughout sub-Saharan Africa. A broad coalition of leading organizations such as Save the Children, World Vision, CARE and others are now organized under the U.S. Coalition for Child Survival (Coalition) in the common pursuit of greatly improving the likelihood that most children in Africa live to enjoy life beyond their fifth birthday.

This sort of cooperation is important because of what is at stake. The unfortunate fact is, one out of six children in Africa do not live past age five. More often than not, this unsettling statistic is not due to some host of exotic diseases that require complex treatments. The culprits are basic and largely preventable conditions such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and measles. Children in the United States get these diseases every day, but easy access to medicines and trained medical staff defines the difference in outcomes between American infants and toddlers and their counterparts in Africa.

The impact of such death rates becomes truly astounding when taken as a whole. In the hour that you spent getting ready for work today, more than 1,000 children under the age of five died; 10 million more will perish before we reach the next International Day of the African Child in 2009. Now consider how such a trend affects the families and communities of the developing world. Economic initiatives and social agendas become difficult to achieve when societies are hindered by such basic challenges.

What is really needed to save more children’s lives in Africa, and to enhance and strengthen families, communities and economies, is to ensure that each country and each child has access to a basic package of interventions, vaccinations and safe drinking water and sanitation. This may seem like a tall order, but it’s not.

Most of the technologies and products needed to save children’s lives have existed for many years. Numerous countries have access to vaccinations and supplies at the central level. However, ensuring that all children receive coverage, and have access to, each intervention remains the long-term challenge. Strengthening health systems – ensuring that ministries of health, local health authorities and village health workers can secure and use the interventions – remains an important area of need. Ensuring that there is an educated work force to deliver health care is another important issue in Africa. While many doctors and nurses are getting trained, a large number end up either leaving their countries for health care opportunities in the West or seeking employment in other sectors within their countries because resources for care and treatment are not available in their communities.

That’s why interventions must also ensure local self-sufficiency through knowledge and education. For example, community health workers can educate mothers and families about the importance of early breastfeeding, which has declined in many countries. Efforts must be renewed to explain to mothers that breastfeeding exclusively for six months and continuing breastfeeding for a baby’s first year could avert 13 percent of the deaths cause in children under five.

It is also critical to ensure that an adequate supply of life-saving commodities reach the village level and do not get stuck in central warehouses. For instance, vaccines have an incredible impact, but can’t make a difference unless they reach the children. Eritrea, a country devastated by a war for independence, had one of the worst early childhood vaccination rates in Africa. Before 1995, fewer than 42% of children received regular vaccinations. Almost 40% had never received even a single vaccination. Following a seven-year program supported by USAID, immunization coverage among children one to two years of age from increased from 41% fully vaccinated in 1995 to 76% in 2002.

The care and management of vaccinations has always been an issue where extreme heat or cold can render medicines ineffective. Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), a Coalition member, has developed vaccine vials that alert health care workers that the vaccine is no longer effective. Another member, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), has been working at a global level to ensure that there is a secure supply of vaccinations and financing to fund their ongoing development.

It takes an army of advocates to improve the lives of millions of children. Help us to ensure that we see a real and sustained drop in death rates among children by educating yourself with the causes and solutions behind child mortality in the developing world. Then talk with your friends and co-workers about the child survival crisis. Organizations and individuals working in health care have a tremendous amount of insight and expertise to lend to this effort. It’s a cause that everyone should back.

We can achieve much more for the world’s children through supporting increased access to life-saving interventions, pushing for ongoing training and education in afflicted communities, and promoting stronger health systems. Will you join us?

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The US Coalition for Child Survival is a broad coalition of organizations and individuals united to strengthen United States and global commitment to improve the survival and health of children in developing countries. The Coalition represents non-governmental organizations, faith-based organizations, universities, foundations, corporations, and private voluntary organizations. For more information, see www.child-survival.org or write to info@usccs.org.