The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with Benin's Health Ministry, has launched a programme aimed at improving early childhood development by reducing the incidence of preventable diseases and ailments linked to poor nutrition.
The programme targets infants up to five years old. It aims to protect them against tetanus, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases, reduce the incidence of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea, and fight diseases linked to vitamin A deficiency. In the long term, UNICEF hopes to reduce the food deficiency/disease tandem by 25 percent in selected regions in Benin.
Germany, Switzerland and the United States, through their international aid agencies, are participating in the project which was launched on Wednesday.
According to the head of UNICEF-Benin, Esther Guluma, the country's infant mortality rate dropped from 94 percent to 89 percent between 1996 and 2001, due in part to a higher budgetary allocation to the health sector, a constant supply of basic vaccines, and a high national vaccine coverage rate.
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