New partnership aims to combat child mortality

Almost half a million children in Ethiopia are dying each year from easily preventable diseases, international health officials revealed on Tuesday. Ethiopia has the sixth largest number of children dying annually – with only India, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo faring worse. But a new global partnership is now aiming to slash that “unacceptable” death rate by two thirds to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Officials from the 'Child Survival Partnership' said that improving nutrition for children under five was vital and should be a key strategy if death rates were to be reduced. Joy Phumaphi, Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organisation, said simple treatment for diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia could save millions of lives globally. Dr Anne Peterson, who heads the global health programme with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said Ethiopia stood at a crossroads. At the launch of the health initiative in Addis Ababa, she also announced a US $18 million five-year health initiative to support the programme. But the officials also accepted that boosting the skills and manpower of workers in Ethiopia’s health ministry was vital in improving child healthcare. Last year the health ministry underspent its annual budget of US $120 million, despite a major humanitarian emergency that left 13.2 million people needing food aid. “This is a very timely opportunity to put child survival back on top of the development agenda,” said Bjorn Ljungqvist head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia. “Ethiopia is a very appropriate place to begin, given its great need and the commitment of the government and all partners to improve the situation of children.” The partnership is made up of UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and USAID. It will support the Ethiopian government's efforts to improve immunisation, nutrition and treatment of child illnesses.