According to the advocacy group known as Save the Children, at least ten million children still die before reaching the age of 5. Almost 100% percent of those children come from the third world nations. This study had compared both child mortality rate and the economic performance of the same country. It said that the improvement of wealth and economy did not spread across the various social classes.
The group said that survival is pretty much a lottery. In a sense, a mother having her children die is not uncommon. Having to survive is like the same as winning the lottery. The big difference is that the people of Africa win their lives. There is no million dollar prize for winning the lottery.
In an ironic twist, the least well off countries are able to reduce the child mortality rate by following policies that are pretty simple. But, the biggest factors at play would be what country the child is in and what community s/he is born into.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) cited one example as Angola where the coastal strip is rich in oil. But the interior of the nation has been ravaged by war. The UNDP estimates that over 50 percent of children who die could have been saved if the nation shared its wealth much fairly.
Countries that are poorer than Angola have done a better job of cutting the rate of child deaths. Such countries include Nepal and Tanzania.
Gordon Brown, the current prime minister of Great Britain said that this new report is a clear message that the world is able to do much more and must be able to do much more to reduce the child mortality rate.
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