Child Mortality & The Children’s Prize

The Children’s Prize is rooted in the fundamental belief that all children are equally deserving of life. “There are two sides to most issues, but there are not two sides to child mortality.  We can all agree that every little child deserves to live,” says prize creator Ted Caplow.

Following the Millennium Summit in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were established to encourage development by improving social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries.  Millennium Development Goal 4 focuses on child mortality rates. The aim is to reduce by two-thirds the under-5 child mortality rate by 2015 from the 1990 level.

Currently, the number of under-five deaths worldwide is approximately 7 million. According to the 2012 Levels and Trend Child Mortality report:

• The leading causes of death among children under age five are pneumonia (18% of all under-five deaths); preterm birth complications (14%); diarrhoea (11%); intrapartumrelated complications (complications during birth; 9%); and malaria (7%). Globally, more than a third of under-five deaths are attributable to under-nutrition.

• About half of under-five deaths occur in only five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and China. India (24 percent) and Nigeria (11 percent) together account for more than a third of all under-five deaths.

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