Levels and Trends in Child Mortality : Report 2018
Despite progress over the past quarter-century, millions of newborns, children and young adolescents die every year, mostly of preventable or treatable causes such as infectious diseasesand injuries. These deaths reflect the limited access of children and communities to basichealth interventions such as vaccination, medical treatment of infectious diseases, adequatenutrition and clean water and sanitation. Therefore, mortality rates among children and young adolescents are not only key indicators for child and young adolescent well-being, but, more broadly, for sustainable social and economic development. While concerted efforts aimed at improving child survival have driven large reductions in mortality levels among children under 5 years of age as well as for children and young adolescents aged 5–14 in recent decades, persistent and intolerably high numbers of child and young adolescent deaths mean more work remains to be done to address the specific survival needs of children and young adolescents. The global community recognizes the crucial need to end preventable child deaths, making it an essential part of the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescent’s Health (2016–2030) and the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all people at all ages. Achieving the ambitious child survival goals requires ensuring universal access to safe,effective, high-quality and affordable care for women, children and adolescents. It alsorequires an understanding of the levels and trends in child mortality as well as the underlyingcauses of child and young adolescent deaths. The monitoring of child and young adolescentsurvival requires continual improvement in the measurement of mortality, particularly incountries that lack timely and accurate mortality data. Reliable estimates of child and youngadolescent mortality at the national, regional and global level are necessary for evidence-based policymaking to improve the survival chances of the world’s children. In the absence of reliable vital registration data in many countries, modelling and monitoring of child and young adolescent mortality rates remains a necessary resource for policymaking and priority setting. The United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) produces estimates of child andyoung adolescent mortality annually, reconciling the differences across data sources and takinginto account the systematic biases associated with the various types of data on child and adolescent mortality. This report presents the UN IGME’s latest estimates – up to the year 2017 – of under five, infant, and neonatal mortality as well as mortality among children aged 5–14. It assesses progress in the reduction of child and young adolescent mortality at the country, regional and global levels, and provides an overview of the methods used to estimate the child mortality indicators mentioned above. (World)