Millions of children dying from preventable causes - report

Progress towards ending the preventable deaths of children under five by 2030 has slowed 60% since 2015, says UN report

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have persistently had the worst rates of child death, in large part due to deaths of newborns, who made up almost half of the total number of children who died under five. File picture: AP

Most of the 4.9m children who died in 2024 could have been saved, according to a new UN report that warns aid cuts could thwart the global goal of ending preventable child deaths.

Progress towards ending the preventable deaths of children under five by 2030 has slowed 60% since 2015, the report found, leading to UN experts to call for sustained investment in health systems to reach the target.

“No child should die from diseases that we know how to prevent. But we see worrying signs that progress in child survival is slowing — and at a time where we’re seeing further global budget cuts,” said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have persistently had the worst rates of child death, in large part due to deaths of newborns, who made up almost half of the total number of children who died under five.

The most common causes were premature birth, pneumonia, and trauma suffered by the child during birth. Infectious diseases were also a major cause, with malaria leading to 17% of deaths of children who survived beyond their first month of life.

The report found that 100,000 children died directly from severe acute malnutrition — with the highest numbers in Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan — but added that severe malnutrition was also a underlying cause for many children who died of other conditions.

All these causes of death could be prevented with better investment in health systems and vaccinations, but instead, aid cuts are threatening to close lifesaving facilities, humanitarian workers said.

“We are not moving far enough or fast enough and leaving 5m [children] under the age of five vulnerable,” said Abdurahman Sharif, senior humanitarian affairs director at Save the Children. 

“Aid cuts are leading to increasing preventable deaths, threatening the continuity of lifesaving services at a time when needs are increasing. It’s reversing decades of progress.”

According to monitoring of aid cuts by Global Health Cluster, 6,600 health facilities were affected by last year’s aid cuts, with a third forced to close.

Danzhen You, chief of demographics and health at Unicef, said that progress in reducing child deaths had already been slowing because more funding needed to be put into healthcare systems and caring for newborns — but that was now being compounded by the effects of conflict and the climate crisis.

“The cuts we are now seeing are coming on top of that trend, adding further pressure to already stretched systems. In some places, this is affecting routine immunisation, malaria prevention, nutrition services and care around birth,” said You.

“The direction is clear: When funding is reduced, services are disrupted, and children’s lives are put at greater risk. Without sustained investment, progress is likely to slow further, and in some settings we could see gains begin to reverse.”

Guardian