Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Indonesia has significantly reduced its child mortality rate over the past two decades and is on the right track to meet its millennium goals, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) says.
Unicef Jakarta spokeswoman Kendartanti Subroto said the country should be able to reduce the 1990 level of child mortality by two-thirds in 2015, meeting its goals.
"Indonesia is one of success stories in reducing the mortality rate among children under 5 years because it has been able to push down its mortality rate from 97 (per 1,000 children) in 1989 to 46 in 2003. This is a significant reduction," she told The Jakarta Post.
Kendartanti said the country had also been able to decrease its infant mortality rate – children under 1 year old – from 68 in 1989 to 35 in 2003. According to Unicef, around 29,000 children under the age of five die every day in the world, and most of these deaths are preventable. Pneumonia annually kills 2 million children under five, more than HIV-AIDS, malaria, and measles combined, according to a Unicef-WHO report launched Monday.
The group recently carried out a focused assessment of key maternal, neonatal and child survival indicators across 60 countries with high child mortality.
These countries account for 94 percent of all under-5 deaths worldwide. The majority have made little or no progress on child mortality, while 14 countries saw child mortality rates increase between 1990 and 2004. Of the 20 countries with the highest under-5 mortality levels, more than half are affected by HIV/AIDS and are often scenes of armed conflict.
Meanwhile, Unicef says Indonesia is one of seven "success stories" of countries set to reach their 2015 goals, along with Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, Nepal and the Philippines.
"Dramatic gains in child survival within some countries point the way toward successful strategies that can work on a broader scale," executive director Ann M. Veneman said in a statement.
Such strategies include integrated, community-based approaches that address maternal and child health, nutrition, AIDS prevention, water and sanitation.
The body also praised Indonesia for its progress in other UN goals like poverty reduction, improving education and literacy and reducing child malnutrition, along with increasing access to maternal health care and safe drinking water.
The organization together with the Norwegian government and the Lancet, a media organization focusing on health is holding a symposium on child survival in New York.
Unicef said the symposium will call for stronger health services in countries with high child mortality, better access to medical supplies, low-cost health measures to prevent deaths, and increased government and donor support for child survival.