Health and Nutrition

Over the past two decades, the world has made remarkable progress in children’s survival and health: child deaths have been reduced by half. This is the result of years of effort and increased coverage of essential health and nutrition services. Despite this progress, last year around 5.2 million children still died before their fifth birthday – and most of these deaths were preventable. More than a quarter of countries are off track to reach the SDG target on under-five mortality. Globally, the leading causes of death in children under five are preterm birth complications, pneumonia, complications during labour and delivery, diarrhoea and malaria. Malnourished children face increased vulnerability. A severely undernourished child is nine times more likely to die from common infections than a well-nourished child. Progress has been uneven and millions of children have been left behind due to poverty, their ethnic identity, because they live in remote areas or urban slums, or in countries caught up in conflicts. Within the health and nutrition thematic area, Save the Children focuses on ensuring that all children receive the health and nutrition care and services they require to survive. To achieve this goal, Save the Children collaborates with local governments, multilateral institutions, grassroots organizations and others to strengthen health systems, and works with individuals, families and communities to encourage the uptake of healthy behaviors. We work in both humanitarian and development contexts to ensure children’s right to survive, their right to good health and well-being, and their right to food and nutrition.