The State of the World's Children 2008 provides a wide-ranging assessment of the current state of child survival and primary health care for mothers, newborns and children. The report argues that these issues serve as sensitive barometers of a country's development and wellbeing and as evidence of its priorities and values, and states that investing in the health of children and their mothers is a human rights imperative and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course towards a better future. The report identifies six pivotal actions at the macro level that urgently require unified engagement to intensify efforts for maternal, newborn and child survival and fulfil the right of women and children to health and well-being.
Equity in Health
The state of the worlds children 2008: Child survival
United Nations [UN] Children's Fund , 2008
The State of the World’s Children 2007
UNICEF, December 2006
This report examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives – and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls. It looks at the status of women today, discusses how gender equality will move all the Millennium Development Goals forward, and shows how investment in women’s rights will ultimately produce a double dividend: advancing the rights of both women and children.
The state of the world’s children 2009
United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF): November 2009
The era of the Convention on the Rights of the Child has seen marked advances in child survival and development, expanded and consolidated efforts to protect children, and a growing recognition of the importance of empowering children to participate in their own development and protection. One of the most outstanding achievements in child survival and development has been the reduction in the annual number of under-five deaths, from 12.5 million in 1990 to less than 9 million in 2008. In particular, immunisation against major preventable diseases has been a life-saving intervention for millions of children in all regions of the world. However, Africa and Asia present the largest global challenges for child rights to survival, development and protection, with the regions of sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia well behind other regions on most indicators. Their progress in primary health care, education, and protection will be pivotal to accelerated progress on child rights and towards internationally agreed development goals for children.
The State of the World’s Children 2016: A fair chance for every child
United Nations Children's Fund: UNICEF, New York, 2016
Based on current trends, 69 million children under five will die from mostly preventable causes, 167 million children will live in poverty, and 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030, the target date for the Sustainable Development Goals – unless the world focuses more on the plight of its most disadvantaged children, according to a UNICEF report released today. The State of the World’s Children, UNICEF’s annual flagship report, paints a stark picture of what is in store for the world’s poorest children if governments, funders, businesses and international organisations do not accelerate efforts to address their needs. The publication argues that progress for the most disadvantaged children is not only a moral, but also a strategic imperative. Stakeholders must have an obvious choice to make: invest in accelerated progress for the children being left behind, or face the consequences of a far more divided world by 2030. At the start of a new development agenda, the report concludes with a set of recommendations to help chart the course towards a more equitable world.
The UN General Assembly High-level Plenary Meeting: A turning point for the MDGs?
Mogedal S: Health Diplomacy Monitor 1(4):1-3, November 2010
This article reviews the debates at the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal Summit, held from 20-22 September 2010. Rather than bringing a convincing message about a turning point for the future, the article argues that the Summit highlights missed opportunities in acting on what has already been agreed to. Barriers to moving forward are hardly mentioned and strategies to overcome them remain largely vague. The outcome of the High Level Meeting can therefore be seen as mixed and fragile as the uneven successes and progress documented in the UN Secretary General’s report to the meeting. On the positive side, the negotiated outcome document combines a return to basics. In promoting public health for all, it brings back the integrated primary health care approach, the social justice and rights imperatives, and participation of civil society as in the Alma Ata Declaration, together with conditional cash transfer, new technology and innovative finance.
The UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2006
Six years ago, leaders from every country agreed on a vision for the future - a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment; a world in which developed and developing countries work in partnership for the betterment of all. This report shows where we stand in 2006 toward achieving these goals. The challenges involved in reaching the MDGs are staggering, but there are clear signs of hope.
The wealth gap in health
Despite improvements in public health in the last half-century, large disparities in health exist between and within countries. Differences among socioeconomic groups can be pronounced, but are easily masked by national data that are used for monitoring and reporting progress. A recent analysis of data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program provides clear evidence of the gap between the rich and poor in a range of health and population indicators— fertility, infant and child mortality, nutrition, and the use of family planning and other health services.
The wider determinants of inequalities in health: A decomposition analysis
Sundmacher L, Scheller-Kreinsen D and Busse R: International Journal for Equity in Health 10(30), 26 July 2011
The common starting point of many studies scrutinising the factors underlying health inequalities is that material, cultural-behavioural, and psycho-social factors affect the distribution of health systematically through income, education, occupation, wealth or similar indicators of socioeconomic structure. However, little is known regarding if and to what extent these factors can assert systematic influence on the distribution of health of a population independent of the effects channelled through income, education, or wealth. In their analysis, the authors of this paper suggest that three main factors persistently contribute to variance in health: the capability score, cultural-behavioural variables and to a lower extent, the materialist approach. Of the three, the capability score illustrates the explanatory power of interaction and compound effects as it captures the individual's socioeconomic, social, and psychological resources in relation to his/her exposure to life challenges. Models that take a reductionist perspective and do not allow for the possibility that health inequalities are generated by factors over and above their effect on the variation in health channelled through one of the socioeconomic measures are underspecified and may fail to capture the determinants of health inequalities, the authors conclude.
The World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development
World Bank: December 2011
In this report, the World Bank argues that closing persistent gender gaps is important for development, as gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. But it is also smart economics, as greater gender equality can enhance productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions more representative. Building on a growing body of knowledge on the economics of gender equality and development, the Bank identifies the areas where gender gaps are most significant-both intrinsically and in terms of their potential development payoff-and where growth alone cannot solve the issues. It then sets forth four priorities for public action: Reducing excess female mortality and closing education gaps where they remain; improving access to economic opportunities for women; increasing women's voice and agency in the household and in society; and limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations.
The World Distribution of Household Wealth
World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)
A new study on The World Distribution of Household Wealth by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) launched on Tuesday 5 December 2006. The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.