Our work on child health

The facts

• More than 8 million children die every year before their fifth birthday
• A child dies every 15 seconds from dirty water and poor sanitation
• In 2008, 10,000 fewer children died each day than in 1990
• Over 3.5 million of the under five deaths are to babies who die within the first 28 days of life.

Issues and solutions

Effective and practical interventions are available to improve child health and prevent children from dying in developing countries. These include health care related interventions, such as vaccinations and integrated management of childhood illnesses; and interventions outside of the health sector, such as those to improve food security and nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and water, and gender equality.

Fragile governments, weak health services, poverty and armed conflict are major barriers to accelerating progress on child health.

Between 1990 and 2008, the mortality rate for children under five in developing countries dropped by 28% – from 100 deaths per 1,000 live births to 72.

But little progress has been made in addressing newborn mortality (deaths in the first month of life); more than 3.5 million children still die within the first month (up to 45% of these deaths are in the first 24 hours).

The health of newborns is inextricably linked to the health of their mothers. Interventions to improve maternal health and survival also improve newborn health and survival. These include; antenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, access to emergency obstetric care when necessary, adequate nutrition, post-partum care, newborn care, education to improve health, breastfeeding and improved sanitation, hygiene and water.

The survival of mothers is important for their children’s survival to and beyond five, as well as their development. Recent DFID-supported evidence from Bangladesh shows that a child whose mother has died has a significantly lower chance of surviving to ten years old.

What DFID is doing

DFID intends to focus its new business plan on reproductive, maternal and newborn health. However, DFID is, and will remain, a strong supporter of efforts to improve child health.

We support child health through our bilateral programme, including our humanitarian response, and our multi-lateral investments, including through UNICEF, GAVI Alliance and others. Our country-based support often takes a comprehensive approach to child health, supporting services and interventions across the continuum of care within the context of national health plans that deliver results for women and children.

We tackle the direct causes of child mortality, including measles, malaria, diarrhoea and HIV and AIDS.  Examples include:

• We are helping to vaccinate 350 million children against polio by providing £100 million over five years (2008 – 13) to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative;
• We support the scale up of immunisations against childhood diseases with long term support to the GAVI Alliance;
• We are also supporting the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), raising frontloaded aid from the international capital markets which is directly contributing to improved child survival. This has allowed the GAVI Alliance to immunise more than 100 million children against polio; help poor countries target 26 million women with immunisations against maternal and neonatal tetanus; and provide 194 million children in 32 countries with lifesaving measles vaccines;
• We have a new priority to improve the prevention and treatment of malaria which is the cause of one in five child deaths in Africa;
• In Kenya, a DFID funded programme aimed at children under five and expectant mothers is promoting the routine use of local health centres, complete immunisation against diseases such as measles and polio, and the distribution of Vitamin A supplements and insecticide-treated bed nets.  Some 77% of children aged 12-23 months are now fully vaccinated, compared with 57% in 2003 , and the percentage of children sleeping under bed nets increased from 5% in 2003 to 46% in 2008-09, saving the lives of over 100,000 children.

We tackle the intermediate and underlying causes of child ill-health and death. Examples include:

• We are working to reach 12 million malnourished children, including in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria and Zimbabwe;
• Since March 2008 our bilateral programmes have delivered safe water to 2.7 million children and adults in Africa and 3.1 million in South Asia, and have helped 1.8 million people in Africa and 25.5 million people in South Asia gain access to basic sanitation.
• We support numerous other programmes across the world that have demonstrable outcomes for child health, including programmes to strengthen health services, improve food security, provide cash transfers; and increase access to education;
• We support civil society and multi-lateral partners who strive to improve child health and the wider realisation of children’s rights.

Find out more about our work on reproductive, maternal and newborn health