Nigeria’s child mortality ranks among world’s worst
Nigeria’s child mortality rate has been ranked among the worst in the world, ranking 12 places above the world’s worst, according to a 2017 End of Childhood report by Save the Children, a US-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
The report found that in 2015, about 108 deaths were recorded for every 1,000 live births in Nigeria. Between 2011 and 2016, for children under five years, 33 percent were stunted and 32.2 percent were out of school.
The report which explored the major reasons why childhood come to an early end, found that Africa’s biggest economy was ranked 160 out of 172 countries in child mortality.
Nigeria loses about 2,300 under five year old and 145 women of child bearing age making the country the second largest contributor to under five maternal mortality rate in the world, according to World Health Organisation (WHO).
The report states that for nearly a century, Save the Children has been fighting to save children from poverty and discrimination, this new report is the first in an annual series, took a hard look at the events that rob children of their childhoods. These “childhood enders” represent an assault on the future of children.
It further reveals that in Nigeria, Angola, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Sierra Leone and Somalia, more than 10 per cent of children do not live to see their fifth birthday. That is at least 40 times the rate found in Finland, Japan, Norway and Singapore, where less than 0.3 per cent of children die before age five.
According to report, the major reasons included poor health, conflict, extreme violence, child marriage, early pregnancy, malnutrition, exclusion from education and child labour. When taken together, these factors have created a global childhood crisis of massive proportions.
The report also revealed that Nigeria is among the seven countries where half of all adolescent births occur which includes Bangladesh, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and the United States.
Adolescent pregnancies are more common in poor, uneducated and rural communities. The poorest 20 per cent of girls in Indonesia have birth rates 6 times those of the wealthiest 20 per cent, similar poverty related disparities are found in Nigeria and Peru, says report.
Recommendations from the report states that no child dies from preventable or treatable causes, hence governments need to prioritise essential services for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health in their efforts to achieve universal health coverage as a key component of their national health systems by 2030 and donor governments should support countries in achieving universal health coverage.
Governments should guarantee, in their national health plans, an essential package of good-quality reproductive, maternal, new-born and child health and nutrition services including access to quality care, medicines and vaccines, accessible to their whole population and free at the point of use, with a strong focus on primary health care.
Anthonia Obokoh