"Children who are poor, hungry and living in remote areas are most likely to be visited by these 'forgotten killers' and the burden placed by pneumonia and diarrhoea on families and health systems aggravates existing inequalities."—GAPPD 2013
Tremendous achievements have been made in decreasing mortality among children under the age of 5 years, with a 41% drop from 87 to 51 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2011.1 However, the reduction rate is not the same everywhere: still in 2010, 7.6 million children died before they reached the age of five.2 Disparities among regions are growing with the highest mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 1 in 9 children die before their fifth birthday—more than 16 times the average for developed regions (1 in 152 ). Southern Asia is the second highest child mortality region, with 1 in 163 children dying before the age of five. Most of these child deaths occur at home and without access to essential health services and basic lifesaving commodities.4 The three primary killers of children under 5 years of age (pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria) are both preventable and treatable with simple and cost-effective interventions.
The past five years have shown a marked increase in global collaborations committed to ending preventable child death. The 2012 Child Survival Call to Action and A Promise Renewed, jointly led by USAID and UNICEF with the Governments of Ethiopia and India, brought together over 700 public, private and civil society sector partners. In 2013, the WHO led development of the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD), which is an integrated effort to protect children from pneumonia and diarrhea. The Every Woman Every Child campaign was launched in 2010 and includes the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health—a roadmap to strengthened financing, policy and programming. Several coordination groups have also been formed, including the UN Commission on Lifesaving Commodities for Women and Children and the Diarrhea and Pneumonia Working Group.
Strategic Approach
MCHIP has been a vital contributor to increased global momentum towards ending preventable child deaths through participation in key global forums such as the 2012 Child Survival Call to Action and A Promise Renewed and the Diarrhea and Pneumonia Working Group, as well as by providing technical assistance in the development of the 2013 integrated Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD). While there has been increasing—although still inadequate—attention and funding for malaria programs, MCHIP is committed to increasing access to services for all three of the major killers of children: diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria. As a traditionally neglected childhood illness, diarrheal disease is at the core of MCHIP advocacy and awareness-raising efforts. MCHIP is building on the current momentum of A Promise Renewed and the GAPPD report to support joint diarrhea and pneumonia programming. MCHIP actively advocates for better strategic integration of diarrheal disease programs with malaria, nutrition and newborn interventions.
MCHIP recognizes that efforts to end preventable child deaths will only be successful when these integrated packages of interventions are available to the populations most at risk. While most countries have adopted Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness (IMNCI), many communities still do not have access to the health facilities that provide these case management services. MCHIP supports integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) as a “strategy to deliver lifesaving curative interventions for common childhood illnesses… where there is little access to facility-based services."5 At the heart of this approach is the recognition that community health workers (CHWs) are a strong potential workforce in hard-to-reach areas. CHWs are available almost everywhere and, with proper training and support, they can provide lifesaving treatment to children in remote villages. MCHIP supports the introduction and expansion of iCCM at the country level by working hand-in-hand with counterparts at the Ministry of Health. To support countries implementing iCCM programs, MCHIP acts as the Secretariat of the CCM Task Force, helping to strengthen global momentum and coordinate iCCM resources available in support of country level programs.
Key Contributions to Child Health