The State Of The Worlds Children
November 17, 2008

RADIO 2CBA FOCAL POINT COMMENTARY BROADCAST ON FRIDAY DECEMBER 24 1999 ON RADIO 2CBA FM.

At Christmas time, when we remember the birth of a very special child, it is worth looking at the state of the world’s children. Some progress has been made in looking after them but much more remains to be done.

The best annual survey of how well children are going worldwide is The State of the World’s Children published each December by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The UNICEF Report shows that there have been significant gains made in the social development of children and women across the world. Millions of people who might have died from communicable diseases and preventable illness in the last 50 years have been saved by public health programmes, such as immunization, improved access to safe water and sanitation facilities, and public information campaigns.

Despite the great strides that have been made for children, the world enters the new millennium with many promises to its youngest citizens still unfulfilled. A lack of commitment by world leaders across the globe means that children continue to be killed, injured and exposed to abuse.

The UNICEF Report has a ranking system for under-five mortality. A critical indicator of the well-being of children is how many of them in each country survive to live past the age of five.

The safest countries for children are: Japan, Norway and Sweden, all of which are the top rung. Australia is in the second rung of countries, along with a number of western European countries, Singapore and South Korea. Slovenia, which was a part of Yugoslavia, is also in that second rung.

The worst countries, according to the under five mortality rate, are: Niger, Angola and Sierra Leone right at the bottom. Sierra Leone is of course particularly notorious at present for the way in which armed gangs seize children and adults at random and cut off their hands.

This under-five mortality rate system is certainly an interesting way of looking at the world. The United States, which is of course the world’s economic and military super power, is only in the fifth rung from the top.

Ironically, it shares that position with one other country: Cuba. The US has maintained sanctions against Cuba for almost four decades, even though almost all other countries (including Australia) do not support the US policy.

But the fact that Cuba is on a par with the United States is an example of what UNICEF means by political commitment to children. The Cuban Government, despite all of its problems, has a clear commitment to children and this is shown by how well it ranks in the under-five mortality. The United States, by contrast, despite all its wealth, is no better than one of the poorest countries in the world.

This reminds me of another statistic which makes the same point. The average black male in Harlem, New York has the life expectancy of a person living in Bangladesh.

This means that a country’s high gross national product is not necessarily a good indicator of how well people are going. The economy may be doing well but the people may not.

Therefore, as the UNICEF Report makes clear, there has to be a clear political commitment to saving the children.