Millennium Development Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Together

In 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, the United States joined 189 world governments in the commitment to
achieve the MDGs, a set of 8 goals aimed at improving the lives of the world’s poorest by 2015.

The target of MDG 4: Reducing Child Mortality is to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and
2015. About 29,000 children under the age of five – 21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes. More
than 70 per cent of almost 11 million child deaths every year are attributable to six causes: diarrhea, malaria, neonatal
infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. Research and experience show that six million of the almost
11 million children who die each year could be saved by low-tech, evidence-based, cost-effective measures such as vaccines,
antibiotics, micronutrient supplementation, insecticide-treated bed nets and improved family care and breastfeeding
practices.1

In 2009, the US government reaffirmed that the MDGs are “America’s goals.” More specifically, the US supports MDG 4 by
contributing to programs such as the President’s Malaria Imitative (PMI), which seeks to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50
percent in 15 African countries and is focused on the most vulnerable groups – children under five and pregnant women.2

Where Success Has Been Achieved

Gains in child survival are evident even in some of the world’s poorest countries. The under-five mortality rate has fallen by 40
per cent or more since 1990 for example in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique and Niger – countries whose per capita
gross national income is below US$350 a year. In South Asia, massive immunization campaigns have reached vast numbers of
children. UNICEF has helped Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan train female volunteers to administer polio vaccines and
promote immunization against maternal and child tetanus. In Afghanistan, more than one million children under age five were
vaccinated against measles, and more than 700,000 women of childbearing age received tetanus vaccines during 2006 under a
comprehensive immunization campaign led by the local Ministry of Health. The same year, Bangladesh, with support from
UNICEF and WHO, conducted the world's largest ever measles eradication campaign in just 20 days, vaccinating 33.5 million
children between the ages of nine months and 10 years.3

What Can You Do?

You and your community play a vital role in the fight against poverty and hunger. Action can be taken to raise awareness of
the MDGs and press the US government to fulfill its commitment to end poverty by 2015. For example, send letters to your
local, regional and/or national representative expressing concern regarding the US’ progress in achieving the MDGs. In
addition, you can join the global movement of over 173 million people who refuse to stay seated or silent in the face of
poverty by participating in STAND UP, TAKE ACTION: Make a Noise for the MDGs taking place from Friday, September 17 –
Sunday, September 19, 2010. Past events include rallies highlighting poverty and social injustices and concert performances.
For more information on how you can participate in Stand Up, please visit www.standagainstpoverty.org.

1
UNICEF, www.unicef.org
2
InterAction, The United States and the MDGS, (Washington, DC: InterAction, 2007).
3
MDG Monitor, www.mdgmonitor.org

The 8 Millennium Development Goals

www.standagainstpoverty.org and www.endpoverty2015.org