Accelerated Child Survival
Doing whatever it takes to save children in the world's least developed countries
© UNICEF/HQ04-0107/Nesbitt
LIBERIA: A baby girl is at a clinic in the Jah Tondo camp for internally displaced persons, near Monrovia, the capital. The clinic provides primary health care, prenatal care, midwifery services and UNICEF-assisted immunization services, including tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, measles and polio vaccinations. In Liberia, UNICEF continues to support accelerated health, nutrition, education and water and sanitation interventions.
Throughout its history, UNICEF has been committed to finding the best and most sustainable ways to save children's lives. The results are clear:
In the 1980s, 40,000 children under the age of five (one in four) in the developing world were dying every day. Today, that number has fallen to 29,000 per day, or fewer than one in ten.
20 million young lives have been saved by UNICEF-provided vaccinations. Tens of millions more children have been able to survive and lead healthier lives with the help of UNICEF programs.
Despite these successes, some 10 million children still die each year, and countless others remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and inadequate healthcare that keeps them on the brink of survival.
UNICEF's never-ending search for improvement
© UNICEF/ HQ07-0149/Indrias Getachew
ETHIOPIA: 10-month-old Bereket, who is being held by his mother, Kutata, has severe acute malnutrition. Philanthropist and U.S. Fund for UNICEF board member Amy Robbins feeds him nutrient enriched Plumpy’nut. The therapeutic food can be fed to children directly from the package, eliminating the risk of contamination in preparation.
As UNICEF evolves to meet the needs of today's children, the organization is building on its vast experience, extensive resources, and strong global presence to improve its programs and save more children's lives than ever before.
Now, UNICEF is drawing upon that knowledge base to launch one of its most innovative and ambitious efforts yet—the Accelerated Child Survival Initiative. The Initiative's mission is to dramatically increase the survival of children under the age of five living in the world's poorest and least developed countries, children who face the greatest risk of early childhood disease and death and are among the hardest to reach.
Accelerated Child Survival is a new initiative that identifies the weak links in impoverished countries' healthcare cycles that conspire to endanger children's health. UNICEF works with local and national officials to target the underlying causes of these problems, and swiftly implements integrated strategies at every level, from grassroots to governments, to remove them.
The result is a single program that will produce groundbreaking results, fast: 10 million children's lives saved in developing countries by 2010, first in sub-Saharan Africa and then in south Asia. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF's Accelerated Child Survival Initiative gives each of us an unprecedented opportunity now to ensure that the neediest of the world's children have their best chance to survive and thrive.
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