Mortality Rate for Children Under Five Reduced by Half Over Last Two Decades

The number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday has dropped by nearly half over the last 22 years, a joint report by the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization and World Bank found.

According to the document, an estimated 6.6 million children under the age of five died in 2012, compared to 12 million in 1990. In all, health officials estimate that some 90 million lives have been saved as a result of this decline.

The gains, according to a press release on the report, can be attributed to "more effective and affordable treatments, improvements in mothers' nutrition and education, innovations in bringing critical services to poor and excluded people and sustained political commitment."

Among those countries that have made the strongest gains in child survival are the world's poorest, the researchers found, some of which --including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, LIberia, Malawi, Nepal, Timor Leste and Tanzania -- have seen a two-thirds reduction in under-five mortality rates since 1990.

West and Central Africa, meanwhile, have experienced a 39 percent drop, the smallest of any region. According to UNICEF, this can be blamed on a number of challenges, including low social benefits, poor education rates and limited sanitation facilities.

It's clear, however, that officials share conflicted views about the progress, which ultimately falls short of the target set by the Millennium Development Goal to reduce overall child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. Pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria, for example, claim 6,000 children under five each day, researchers found.

"Yes, we should celebrate the progress," said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. "But how can we celebrate when there is so much more to do before we reach the goal? And we can speed up the progress -- we know how, but we need to act with a renewed sense of urgency."

In an effort to spur progress, UNICEF, along with Ethiopia, India and the United States, launched the global effort "Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed" designed to decrease deaths from preventable causes. Since then, 176 countries have signed on.

According to Lake, "When sound strategies, adequate resources and strong political will are harnessed in support of child and maternal survival, dramatic reductions in child mortality aren't just feasible, they are morally imperative."