UN: PHL can reach millennium goal to reduce child mortality with greater effort

With the rest of the world set to miss their targets for the fourth Millennium Development Goal on reducing child mortality, a report said over the weekend that the Philippines could still achieve MDG4 if the most vulnerable children can be reached in time.

The fourth Millenium Development Goal set by the United Nations is to reduce deaths of children ages five and under by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015.

“While improvements can make the MDG 4 target reachable in the Philippines, the rates of neonatal deaths or deaths of babies in the first month of life remain high. While under-five deaths dropped by twenty percentage points in the 22-year period from 1990 to 2012, neonatal deaths only went down by two percentage points,” the report said.

Meanwhile, to have a chance at attaining the MDG goal by 2015, a UNICEF representative enjoined the government to provide professional health care to expectant mothers in all parts of the country.

“We need to do more to reach the most vulnerable children, and ensure that each one of them not only survives, but thrives. UNICEF provides assistance to give children the best possible start in life by working at the national and LGU levels to increase the quality of care, the coverage of births attended by skilled birth attendants, and the number of facility-based deliveries with postnatal and neonatal care,” UNICEF Philippines Representative Tomoo Hozumi said.

The report also listed the Philippines as among 176 governments to have signed a pledge, vowing to accelerate progress on child survival. Hundreds of civil society, religious groups and private individuals have also pledged support for the shared goal of giving every last child the best possible start in life.

In the Philippines, deaths among children below five remain highest in the poorest sectors of society, in rural areas, and among families with low educational status, the report said.

However the same report said the world would most likely miss the goals of MDG4, despite halving the rates of child mortality worldwide since 1990.

“If current trends continue, the world will not meet Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG4) – to cut the rate of under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015. Worse, if current trends continue, the goal will not be reached until 2028,” the report said. — Patricia Denise Chiu/BM, GMA News