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Millennium Development Goal
4 – To reduce child mortality
Target – Reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.
Worldwide, more than ten million children die each year before they reach the age of five, almost all of them in developing countries.* Most of these deaths could be prevented by clean water, sanitation, good food and health care. In developing countries, as many as one child in ten dies before the age of five.
If we are to prevent this waste of human life, we need to distribute the world’s resources more equitably, and to ensure that people have clean water, affordable health care and education. Vaccination programmes would also help prevent illnesses such as measles. The world has the knowledge and resources to achieve these targets. We just need to persuade politicians to keep their promises.
*90 per cent of worldwide under-five deaths occur in just 42 countries. (State of the World’s Children, UNICEF 2005)
Activities for this goal include:
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Looking after babies
Younger pupils think about what babies need before they tackle the subject of infant mortality. |
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Why are some children more at risk than others?
Pupils make posters to show how many children around the world are dying and how this situation could be prevented. |
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Measles mystery
Why do people in developing countries die from measles? Pupils examine statements about measles in order to try and draw some conclusions. |
Download Goal 4 poster (89KB pdf)
Download background information and activities for this poster
(87KB pdf)
From the Change the World in Eight Steps online resource.
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