Levels & Trends in Child Mortality, Report 2012

The United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME) updates child mortality estimates annually for monitoring progress. This report presents the IGME’s latest estimates of under-five, infant and neonatal mortality and assesses progress towards MDG 4 at the country, regional and global levels. Data on child mortality shows a reduction to 6.9m under-five deaths in 2011 from nearly 12m in 1990. Neonatal mortality declined to 3m in 2011 from 4.4 in 1990. The pace of progress towards the MDG4 is accelerating – child mortality has almost halved in a generation, and important breakthroughs are seen even in the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a faster decline in its under-five mortality rate, with the annual rate of reduction doubling between 1990–2000 and 2000–2011. Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi and Niger are countries in sub-Saharan Africa that are on track for MDG 4 for child survival according to UN estimates, while Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal are examples of South Asian countries that are on track to meet the targets of MDG 4. The report finds that about half of under-five deaths occur in only five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and China. India (24 percent) and Nigeria (11 percent) together account for a third of all under-five deaths worldwide. The UN- IGME 2012 report calls for systematic action to reduce newborn and child mortality, particularly by targeting the major killers of children with effective preventive and curative interventions.