Some Good News on Goal 4 of the Millennium Development Goals

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported today that child mortality had fallen over the past two decades to 65 per 1,000 live births.  That is indeed good news!  This is quite an improvement from 1990, when 93 out of every 1,000 children under the age of 5 died.

So what has the global community done to help bring the child mortality rate down? An article in The New York Times entitled Child Mortality Rate Declines Globally mentions some of the reasons for the improvements

"The child mortality rate has declined...in large part because of the widening distribution of relatively inexpensive technologies like measles vaccines and ant-malaria nets. 

Other simple practices have helped, public health experts say, including a rise in breast feeding alone for the first six months of life, which protects children from diarrhea caused by dirty water."

The Times said the global community has also come through with funding, with wealthy nations, international agencies and philantropists like Bill and Melinda Gates contributing billions of dollars to the effort. 

"School children and church groups have also pitched in, paying for mosquito nets and feeding programs," said the article.

Is it possible to meet Goal 4 of the Millennium Development Goals?  The goal is to reduce child mortality to 31 out of every 1,000 live births by 2015.  The answer is a resounding yes if the global community continues its support for measures that have worked well thus far. 

Comments

[Child Expert]

Thanks for this. I saw an article and thought it was nuts but you have done a terrific job at pointing that out.

[Lars Hansen]

I am contacting you concerning The World Log (http://theworldlog.org), a web platform that spreads user generated content (blogs, photos, video and newsletters) related to development cooperation to larger audiences. 

The Swedish International Development Co-orporation Agency (Sida) has developed the on-line platform to bring the general public closer to the realities of development work throughout the world and to involve them in the issues.  The target audiences for the site are professionals, people involved in development issues and the general public. The goal of the platform is to raise awareness and generate discussion prior to, during and after the European Development Days (http://www.eudevdays.eu/) in Stockholm this October, and to engage the general public in the debate and questions of international development. The World Log is bringing the tools of the 21st century to bare on the issues to be discussed .       

The World Log shows real stories and discussions from development work around the world in an easily accessible way.  Entries are plotted on Google maps and marked up by topic, making your blog and others easily available to those not versed in blog search tools. The platform will be heavily promoted during the European Development Days through several official sites such as the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Swedish EU Presidency website and the Sida website. The goal of the platform is to drive as many people as possible to the actual blogs, such as yours, and engage them in actual development work discussions and activities from around  the world. 

Registration for the site is free and will take roughly 10 minutes of your time. You can attach your blog by simply copying and pasting in your RSS feed into your World Log profile. You can set up standard tags for your entries, such as the country you are working in or writing about and the issues that you regularly address such as AIDS or water. This way when someone searches for articles, blogs and discussions about, for example, water, you will be part of the results. You can also add specific tags for specific articles. For example if you regularly write about agricultural development in Rwanda but write a blog entry about women's issues in Central Africa, you can tag that specific blog entry to reflect the different topic. 

The World Log is not limited to blogs alone. Newsletters, photos and videos are all supported and encouraged. All you need is the RSS feed.  The platform also supports discussions and comments based on entries so that you can follow what your readers are saying. Readers who click on your entry are directed to your site so you register the hit. We have developed a widget that you can embed in your site if you wish your readers to see on-going discussions and topic on the World Log related to what you write about. And we also have badges that you can attach to your site to show your affiliation with the World Log. There are no strings attached, we do this to promote discussion and engage the public, though we encourage you to promote the site for your and others benefit. 

I really hope that you will consider being a part of the discussion. You are passionate about the issues and development (which is why I am contacting you) and so are we. More detailed information about the site, including an easy to use set-up guide, can be found here (http://theworldlog.org/signup-info/).  If you have any questions, please ask. 

The World Log is an opportunity for you to reach new readers and have your voice heard in the build up to, during and after the European Development Days conference. 

Thank you for your help and time
Lars Hansen
lars@theworldlog.org

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