Other contributing factors Female educational attainment is increasing in all regions, but efforts must be accelerated in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
FIG. 42
*The following countries are included in this category: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States, United Kingdom.
Source: Prepared by UNICEF based on Barro, Robert J., and Jong-Wha Lee, 'A New Data Set of Educational Attainment in the World: 1950-2010', National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper no. 15902, NBER, Cambridge, Mass., April 2010.
Female educational attainment, 1950–2010
Children born to better-educated mothers are at lower risk of death FIG. 43 Source: Prepared by UNICEF based on Gakidou, Emmanuela, et al., 'Increased Educational Attainment and Its Effect on Child Mortality in 175 Countries between 1970 and 2009: A systematic analysis', The Lancet, vol. 376, no. 9745, 18 September 2000, pp. 959-974.
Relationship between education level of women of reproductive age (15–44) and under-five mortality rate, 2009
About the chart: Each diamond represents a country or area.
Countries with high levels of child marriage tend to have high levels of early childbearing
FIG. 44
60
Guinea
40
Chad
Niger
Central African Republic Bangladesh
20
0
0
20
40
60
,% About the chart: Each dot represents a country or area.
80
Source: UNICEF global databases, 2012.
Women who gave birth by age 18, %
% of women aged 20–24 who were first married or in union by age 18 and % of women aged 20–24 who gave birth by age 18, in selected countries with available data, 2005–2011
Mothers’ education and child mortality Female educational attainment has been steadily increasing in all regions of the world for decades (Figure 42). This progress is considered to be linked to more than half of the recent reductions in underfive mortality (Figure 43).a Mechanisms through which maternal education may have a positive impact on child survival include economic benefits acquired by the mother through education, providing access to better housing, sanitation and health care;b improved immunization status of children born to better educated mothers;c and other changes in usage of preventive and curative health services across the continuum of care.d Education can also delay marriage and childbirth, which in turn has a positive impact on child survival.e f Research suggests that fathers' education also has a positive impact on child survival, although to a lesser extent than mothers' education.g Research also suggests that education levels among mothers are strongly associated with their own health and survival. A recent study has found that the risk of maternal death was 2.7 times higher among women with no education, and two times higher among women with 1–6 years of education, than among women having more than 12 years of education, even after adjusting for the effects of other factors such as marital status, maternal age and institutional capacity.h This mortality differential may be due to educated mothers' enhanced capacity to obtain, understand and apply essential health information; and increases in the knowledge and confidence required to make appropriate health-related decisions and to seek health care.i The relationship between increased education of mothers and child and maternal mortality underlines the interdependence and complementarity of several of the MDGs. Efforts to achieve MDG 4 (reduce child mortality) and MDG 5 (improve maternal health) will be bolstered by progress in achieving MDG 2 (universal primary education) and MDG 3 (gender equality and empowerment). The world is still far from reaping the full benefits available through improved maternal education: In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the average duration of schooling among women is still only a little more than 4 years, meaning that the majority of women in these regions do not complete primary school. TOO EARLY, TOO MANY AND TOO SOON Early childbearing — giving birth before age 18 — can potentially cause serious harm to the health and well-being of both children and their mothers. Adolescent mothers are at greater risk of experiencing potentially life-threatening complications, and their children are at greater risk of being born prematurely and of having low birth weight.j Children of younger mothers face a greater risk of dying during the first month of life.k Early marriage raises the likelihood of early childbearing (Figure 44), partly as a result of societal norms that influence when child-bearing is considered acceptable, or is even expected. Girls married as children typically cease their education, and thus lose out on the economic and health benefits conferred by additional years of schooling (Figure 43).l Birth spacing — the interval between the birth of one child and the birth of the next to the same mother — has important implications for child survival and health. In all countries, short birth spacing raises the risks of prematurity and of low birth weight, and in low- and lower-middle-income countries, maintaining a birth spacing of at least two years would cut mortality among infants (less than 1 year old) by 10%, and would cut mortality among children ages 1-4 by 21%.m Access to contraceptives and family planning services thus has significant potential to improve child survival through increasing birth spacing. 29