(1) In 2000, the United States joined 188 countries in committing to achieve 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, including ‘MDG 4 (Reduce child mortality)’, which aims to reduce the mortality rate of children under the age of 5 by 2/3 .
(2) The significant commitment of the United States to reducing child mortality in the developing world contributed to a 25 percent reduction in the mortality rate of children under the age of 5 between 1990 and 2006, and over the past 20 years, the United States has invested over $6,000,000,000 in child survival programs run by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In 15 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that received assistance from USAID, under-5 mortality declined by an average of 33 percent between 1996 and 2006 alone, with some countries achieving a reduction as high as 50 percent.
(3) According to one of the world’s leading medical journals, the Lancet, despite United States and global efforts to achieve MDG 4, of the 60 countries that account for 94 percent of under-5 child deaths, ‘only seven countries are on track to meet MDG 4, thirty-nine countries are making some progress, although they need to accelerate the speed, and fourteen countries are cause for serious concern’.
(4) 8,800,000 children under the age of 5 die annually, more than 24,000 children per day, mostly from preventable and treatable causes, including 4,000,000 newborns who die in the first 4 weeks of life, according to UNICEF.
(5) Pneumonia, diarrhea, low birth weight, sepsis, birth trauma, and malaria, all of which are preventable and treatable diseases, are the top contributors of deaths of children under the age of 5.
(6) More than 3,000,000 children die each year due to lack of access to low-cost antibiotics, oral rehydration therapy, and antimalarial drugs, and 2,500,000 die from diseases for which vaccines are readily available.
(7) Nearly 1 of every 5 children die before the age of 5, more than 2,000,000 deaths per year, in the 10 countries with the highest child mortality rates in the world: Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Burundi.
(8) Approximately 536,000 women die every year, 99 percent of them in the developing world, from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
(9) Maternal death rates are inextricably tied to neonatal survival, with death rates for newborns increasing by 100 percent in some countries in the developing world following maternal death.
(10) Risk factors for maternal death in developing countries include pregnancy and childbirth at an early age, closely spaced births, infectious diseases, malnutrition, and complications during childbirth.
(11) According to the Lancet, nearly 2/3 of annual child and newborn deaths, or nearly 6,000,000 children under age 5, can be avoided in accordance with MDG 4 if a package of high-impact, low-cost interventions were made available, including oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea ($0.54 per course of treatment) and antibiotics to treat respiratory infections ($0.71 per course of treatment).
(12) 2,000,000 lives could be saved annually by providing oral rehydration therapy prepared with clean water.
(13) According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) have proven to be safe, cost-effective and highly effective in treating children with severe malnutrition and in facilitating home-based, locally produced, care regimens. Furthermore, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), utilization of RUTF has shown promise in preventing at-risk children from becoming malnourished.
(14) Exclusive breast feeding--giving only breast milk for the first 6 months of life--could prevent an estimated 1,400,000 newborn and infant deaths each year, primarily by protecting against diarrhea and pneumonia.
(15) Expansion of clinical care for newborns and mothers, such as clean delivery by skilled attendants, emergency obstetric care, and essential newborn care (neonatal resuscitation, infection management, and special care for low weight newborns) can avert 50 percent of newborn deaths and reduce maternal mortality.
(16) Controlling intestinal worms will help prevent 16,000,000 cases of mental retardation and 200,000,000 years of lost primary schooling among children in developing countries.
(17) The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with support from the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the African Union, has successfully demonstrated the accelerated child survival and development program in Senegal, Mali, Benin, and Ghana, reducing mortality of children under the age of 5 by 20 percent in targeted areas using low-cost, high-impact interventions.
(18) The experiences of United States Government-supported and nongovernmental organization maternal and child health programs in countries such as Nepal, Ethiopia, and Senegal have demonstrated that community-based approaches, linked to primary and referral care when possible, can deliver high-impact interventions to prevent or treat many of the life-threatening conditions affecting mothers, newborns, and children under the age of 5.
(19) On January 15, 2009, United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice stated before the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate that President Barack Obama is committed to ‘making the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) America’s goals.’.
(20) Nearing the halfway point of attaining the MDGs by 2015 with thousands of avoidable newborn and child deaths still occurring, the United States will need to immediately scale up its funding and delivery of proven low-cost, life-saving interventions in order to fulfill its commitment to help ensure that MDG 4 is met.
(21) More than half of all children and pregnant women in developing countries suffer from anemia, which is exacerbated by malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and nutritional deficits, causing adverse pregnancy outcomes and even death. According to the United States Agency for International Development, hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders, anemia, and sepsis account for 60 percent of all maternal deaths in the developing world.
(22) According to the World Bank, the number of orphaned children is expected to rise to 35,000,000 by 2010 due to the legacy of AIDS and other diseases, war, and high rates of death in pregnancy and childbirth.
(23) According to the World Health Organization, women that have undergone female genital cutting (FGC) are significantly more likely than those without FGC to experience serious postpartum health problems, and children born to mothers who have undergone FGC face higher death rates immediately after birth. According to the United Nations Interagency Statement on Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation, programs that include education, community involvement, public pledges and organized diffusion have been shown to bring about the necessary consensus and coordination for the abandonment of female genital cutting at the community level.
(24) According to the Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI) 2009 Annual Threat Assessment, widespread poor maternal and child health and malnutrition has the potential to weaken central governments and empower non-state actors, including terrorist and paramilitary groups.
(25) On March 27, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated, ‘Countries with higher infant mortality rates are more vulnerable to political upheaval.’.
(26) According to UNICEF, relatively inexpensive healthcare interventions, such as immunization programs, distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, and the utilization of micronutrient supplements, have contributed to the lowest under-5 mortality rate since records began in 1960.