We’ve saved the bankers — now let’s save the children
As Gordon Brown meets world leaders in New York this week, Save the Children today urges the Prime Minister to bring home a deal that could save millions of children’s lives.
Thursday 25 September 2008
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children Chief Executive, who will also be at the meeting of world leaders on global poverty, said: "It would cost only an extra $5 billion a year to save the lives of six million children. One hundred and forty times that amount was promised in barely a week to bail out banks in trouble. Never again can world leaders claim they can’t afford to save children’s lives.
"Gordon Brown has problems at home, but here in New York he has real authority because he has shown great leadership on global poverty.
"Today we call on him to do so again and ensure this meeting delivers practical plans that save children’s lives. If we see nothing more than warm words and recycled promises then the world’s poorest children will pay the price."
The cost of saving six million children’s lives, which would put the world on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal, is estimated by the Lancet to be $5 billion a year, which represents $4.25 (£2.37) per person in rich countries.
Save the Children is asking world leaders for a big commitment to support any developing country that comes up with a clear plan to save children’s lives including a guarantee that every child will have access to a trained health worker. Save the Children also wants to see decisive plans for tackling malaria.
Whitbread continued: “Plans to save children’s lives must be focused ruthlessly on reducing child mortality figures by two thirds by 2015, and targeted so that the poorest and most vulnerable children are not left behind. We also want to see a big push on malaria — a disease caused by mosquito bites that kills around a million children a year. We could prevent most of these deaths quite easily and we know Gordon Brown can deliver this if he has the will.
"Richer countries, businesses and others must back those plans and ensure they do not fail. Only by working together will we meet this emergency head on and stop this needless loss of life."
In 2000 world leaders signed up to the 2015 Millennium Development Goal target of reducing by two-thirds the amount of children who die before their fifth birthday.
But at current rates it will take at least until 2045 to reach this goal — and even that rate of progress could be reversed by the effects of rising food prices. Malnutrition is the single biggest cause of child deaths in the world and food price rises will be a death sentence for families already on the edge of survival.
Average global food prices have risen by 83% over the past three years. In Bangladesh alone, evidence shows that increases in the price of rice could result in 900,000 more malnourished children. In the Somali region of Ethiopia, where there are already huge shortages of food, food prices have risen by up to 522 per cent in the past three years. And prices are still rising. By the end of the year food prices are predicted to double again.
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