About EVERY ONE

Every year, more than 8 million children around the world die from basic illnesses before their fifth birthday. It is estimated that 5.4 million children's lives could be saved each year through low cost survival services and practices in the 42 countries where 90 per cent of the under-five deaths occur.

EVERY ONE will help us increase investment in maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition practices that have a high impact on reducing deaths. By 2015, these programmes will reach 50 million children and women of maternal age with proven health interventions.

At the end of the September 20-22 MDG Summit in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched the global strategy on maternal and child health: Every Woman, Every Child.

Each year, millions of women and children die from preventable causes. These are not mere statistics. They are people with names and faces. Their suffering is unacceptable in the 21st century. We must, therefore, do more for the newborn who succumbs to infection for want of a simple injection, and for the young boy who will never reach his full potential because of malnutrition. We must do more for the teenage girl facing an unwanted pregnancy; for the married woman who has found she is infected with the HIV virus; and for the mother who faces complications in childbirth. Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General

Why now?

In 2000, world governments committed to the Millennium Development Goals - 8 targets for reducing global poverty. MDG4 is to reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate. At current rates of progress this target won't be met until 2045 and millions more children will have lost their lives as a result of preventable and treatable causes.

This is unacceptable.

The facts - too many children are dying needlessly

• Nearly one child dies every three seconds
• Up to two million die on the first day of their lives
• Nearly 3 million babies die within one week of birth
• Nearly all - 97 per cent - of children dying before their fifth birthday, die in low or middle-income countries and are disproportionately from the poorest and most marginalised communities within these countries.

Most of these deaths are caused by basic illnesses like pneumonia, malaria or problems during childbirth. Many of these illnesses could be easily prevented.

About the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The MDGs are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organisations have agreed to achieve by 2015.

These goals are:

• eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• achieve universal primary education
• promote gender equality and empower women
• reduce Child Mortality Rate
• improve maternal health
• combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
• ensure environmental sustainability
• develop a global partnership for development.

Don’t wait for world leaders to act. You can make a difference and DO 1 THING,

Have a question? Contact us.

The poor cannot wait. We must not use the economic crisis, the food crisis or other setbacks as an excuse for failing to live up to our commitments.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro