Policy brief: The EU and child survival – an action plan for 2010

Every year, nearly 9 million children under the age of five die, most of them from preventable causes. The deadline for meeting Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 – the international community’s targets to reduce the mortality rate among children by two-thirds, and among women in pregnancy and childbirth by three-quarters is now just five years away.It is clear that these targets cannot be met unless policy-makers radically change tack and address these direct and underlying causes. As the world’s largest donor bloc, the EU has a crucial part to play.This briefing looks at:the scale of the problem; the opportunities for change; and what the EU must do now