A 30 year trend in the wrong direction

A disturbing trend has become apparent over the last 30 years. It is this: the rate at which needy children die in poor, undeveloped countries is not only higher than it is in the rich, developed countries of the West, but the difference is getting worse. Here are the numbers.

Between 1970 and the year 2000 mortality in children under five living in developed countries fell by more than 70 percent. In the same period mortality among those children living in low-income countries dropped by only 40 percent. Then, as if this were not bad enough, the rate at which poor under five year olds died in some African countries actually increased in this period of such dramatic material advances both in that continent and through the Western world — even though in those same countries the more wealthy children’s mortality rate fell. This imbalance is needless and it is affecting needy families. There is more we can do to be helping needy children, and we should do it.