Investing in children saving cash and lives

A health officer in charge of Baringo County Beyond-Zero campaign clinic Mrs Caro Tim attends to patients at Eldume IDP camp on March 28, 2017. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Most of these deaths could have been prevented with cheap, but very effective interventions.
  • Study indicates that every $1 million invested in the poorest children saves nearly twice as many lives as the same investments that do not reach the poor.  
  • The SDG child mortality target aims to end all preventable newborn and child deaths by 2030.
  • Regional disparity continues with higher child mortality in arid, semi-arid and rural areas.

It is shameful but true. The world’s poorest children remain nearly twice as likely to die before they reach their fifth birthday as the richest.

A majority of them die unnecessarily. Most of these deaths could have been prevented with cheap, but very effective interventions.

Unicef recently launched a report, ‘Narrowing the Gaps: The Power of Investing in the Poorest Children’, showing that investments in the most deprived children and communities provide greater value for money. 

The study indicates that every $1 million invested in the poorest children saves nearly twice as many lives as the same investments that do not reach the poor.  

IMPORTANT

These findings have important implications, also here in Kenya, especially as the government works to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Vision 2030. 

The SDG child mortality target aims to end all preventable newborn and child deaths by 2030.

This universal goal demands urgent action to reach the still-unreached children, families and communities.

The Unicef study looked at the difference in reaching poor and non-poor children with six critical health interventions, as well as at the rate of increasing coverage rates for these six interventions across 51 countries; home to 400 million children below the age of five.

ANTENATAL CARE

Data for antenatal care visits, skilled birth attendance, early initiation of breastfeeding, use of insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria, immunisation and care-seeking for sick children, were analysed.

There were three key findings. Poor children are less likely to be reached with these interventions; coverage improved over the past 10-15 years for both poor and non-poor children; coverage increased most among poor children. Most importantly, it proved that investments in the poorest children saved almost twice as many lives.

The 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey showed good progress in reducing the child mortality rate: It was 52 per 1,000 live births, down from 74 per 1,000 in 2009, with significant decreases in child deaths from HIV, malaria, and measles.

MORTALITY

This reduction in childhood mortality is directly linked to increased coverage of effective health interventions, including the use of mosquito nets, better immunisation and general improvements in the health system.

Progress can be further amplified if we focus our attention more on the most deprived.

Regional disparity continues with higher child mortality in arid, semi-arid and rural areas.

Some 38 per cent of rural households reported that long distances prevented them from accessing health services, compared to 29 per cent in urban areas.

Access to skilled doctors and health workers is also widely varied. 

DEATHS

The doctor to patient ratio in Turkana is 1 to 285,000 compared to the national average of one per 7,150 people.

This impacts mortality rates for children under five; where Nyanza region had rates of 142 child deaths per 1,000 compared to Nairobi with 46 per 1,000.  

At least 100,000 babies and children under five urgently need treatment for severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition. 

MALNOURISHED

Many are chronically malnourished -- not getting the right food that is needed for a healthy development of both body and brain – and robbing them of chances for a bright future.

Unicef and the whole UN family are committed to continuing to work with the government to reach the remotest areas.

There are impressive successes in national and county health programmes refocusing health care to meet the needs of local communities, but more can be achieved through increasing and improving the targeting of preventive and promotive interventions.   

 Mr Schultink is the Unicef Representative in Kenya