Chapter 1: Child Survival Lives Saved, Lives Lost: The Potential Gains in meeting MDG 4 and beyond Percentages are extremely useful measures of progress, and in percentage terms there have been major gains in child survival. The world has managed to reduce its rate of under-five mortality by 47% from 1990 to 2012. This percentage, however, does not fully reflect the cumulative absolute impact of child deaths, which has been enormous in the past 20 years — nor does it reveal the significance of the estimated number of lives saved thanks to increased efforts, resources and commitment to child survival. The global toll of under-five deaths over the past two decades is staggering: 216 million children died before the age of 5 between 1990 and 2012 (Figure 14) — more than the current total
population of Brazil, the world’s fifth most populous country. And another 15 million will die between 2012 and 2015 even if the world were to reduce under-five deaths at an unprecedented rate and meet MDG 4 on time. On the other hand, if current trends continue in all countries, MDG 4 will not be met globally until 2028 — and an additional 35 million children will die between 2015 and 2028 that could otherwise have lived had we met MDG 4 on time and continued that trend. Hope lies in the strong advances made since 1990, and particularly since 2000, in accelerating progress in reducing under-five mortality. The direct result of this progress has been the saving of around 90 million children’s lives —
Progress in improving child survival has saved 90 million children’s lives since 1990; additional millions of children must be saved if all countries are to meet MDG 4 on time
Number of lives saved since 1990 among children under age 5, and number of lives to be saved in order to achieve MDG 4
South Asia 860 (24.5%)
Sub-Saharan Africa 2356 (67.2%)
es l liv ona d i t i Add e save to b
Ad to ditio be na sa l liv ve d es
Estimates are rounded, and therefore may not sum to 100%.
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