By JOY WANJA
Posted Tuesday, September 7 2010
Reaching minority communities will be a major step to reducing inequality and reducing child mortality, according to findings of two reports.
The reports released Tuesday by The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) are aimed at lobbying countries worldwide to pay more attention to the welfare of children if they hope to attain the Millennium Development Goals.
“Our findings challenge the traditional thinking that focusing on the poorest and most disadvantaged children is not cost-effective,” said Mr Anthony Lake, Unicef’s Executive Director at the launch of the two reports in New York.
According to the global body, millions of lives can be saved by investing first in the most disadvantaged children and communities.
Children in the poorest quintiles of their societies are more than twice as likely to be underweight and face a much greater risk of stunting compared to children from the richest quintiles, the study cites.
And with four years towards the deadline of the goals in 2015, the proposal is expected to address the widening disparities that are accompanying progress toward the attainment of the MDGs.
While at an official trip to Rwanda this week, President Kibaki affirmed that the government would allocate more resources to fund programmes that directly uplift the living standards of the people and accelerate the attainment of the MDGs.
"Kenya, like Rwanda and other African countries has committed considerable resources and put in place the necessary institutional and policy frameworks in an endeavour to ensure the realisation of the MDGs,” said President Kibaki.
Children from the poorest 20 percent of households in the developing world were also found to be more than twice as likely to die before reaching their fifth birthdays as children from the richest 20 percent of households.
Despite great strides towards achieving gender parity in primary education over the past decade, girls and young women in developing regions remain at a considerable disadvantage in access to education, particularly at the secondary level.
Of the 884 million people who lack access to improved drinking water sources, 84 per cent of them live in rural areas.
The new findings are presented in two publications: Narrowing the Gaps to Meet the Goals and Progress for Children: Achieving the MDGs with Equity.
By comparing the effectiveness of different strategies for delivering critical health interventions to those in greatest need, the study found that targeting to the poorest and most disadvantaged children could save more lives.
During the Heads of State and Government consultative forum on the MDGs, in Kigali-Rwanda, President Kibaki reiterated the need for African leaders to speak in one voice and reach a common stand particularly with regard to calls for the developed world to honour pledges made in Scotland so as to accelerate the achievement of MDGs.
The seven MDGs goals are: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Achieve universal primary education; Promote Gender Equality and empower women; Reduce child mortality; Improve maternal health; Combat HIV, malaria and other diseases and Ensure environmental sustainability
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