Policy Brief: Gender, Discrimination and Child Survival

This briefing identifies the different ways in which gender affects children’s health and survival, and recommends actions to achieve equitable reductions in child mortality for girls and boys.Children’s chances of surviving to the age of five are heavily influenced by whether they are a girl or a boy. This is partly because of genetic differences between the sexes, but mostly because of the different status and roles assigned to men and women – or gender differences. Unequal life chances and a failure to address discrimination on the basis of gender is an injustice. It is also slowing progress towards Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 – a two-thirds reduction in child mortality by 2015.This policy brief looks at the impact of gender on a child’s chances of survival, focusing on: sex, gender and physical determinants of child survival, social and cultural traditions and institutional discrimination.
This publication outlines Save the Children’s calls to governments and donors to reduce the impact of gender discrimination on child survival.