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Condition of women, children "has not improved" - UNICEF

    NAIROBI

    A new study by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Ministry of Planning and Reconstruction of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has shown that the condition of women and children in the country has not improved since the last such study was carried out in 1995.

    According to the latest "Enquete Nationale sur la Situation des Enfants et des Femmes", released on Monday, malnutrition of children and their mothers remains high, vaccination of children is still insufficient, access to prenatal care remains very limited, infant and childhood mortality are continuing to rise, and the number of children attending school has decreased significantly.

    In a statement, UNICEF said that the myriad of problems documented by this latest study "date back many years, and their solution was to be found in a radical change of development policy and greater awareness-raising of communities".

    The information for the ‘Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2’ was gathered by a team of 355 people from April to October 2001 in all provinces of the country, in an effort to evaluate progress made since the 1990 World Summit for Children. 10,305 households were visited for the study, which received the technical and financial support of UNICEF and the US Agency for International Development.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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