Iran hailed for cutting child mortality
The United Nations Childrenas Fund (UNICEF) representative in Iran says the country has made considerable progress in reducing childhood mortality.
Paul Hulshoff said the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken significant steps in realizing the fourth goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the IRIB reported.
MDGs are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015.
These goals include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality rates, improving maternal health, fighting epidemics such as AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.
The UNICEF official underscored that Iran will achieve all the goals by 2015.
"Among the Millennium Development Goals, Goal No. 4 which concerns decreasing mortality rate in children under five years of age is the most important as it encompasses other objectives," Hulshoff underlined.
He went on to say that UNICEF focuses on strategies to push down the mortality rate among underprivileged children as 95% of childhood deaths occur in developing countries.
"Every hour, a hundred children die because of accidents which can easily be prevented," said Hulshoff, adding that some 950 thousand under-18s die each year due to accidents and injuries, 90% of which are unintended.
Unintentional injuries and accidents also account for twenty percent of mortalities in children aged less than 5 years, he continued.
The UNICEF — originally referred to as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund — was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries devastated by World War II.
In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations System and its name was shortened to United Nations Children’s Fund. It, however, continued to be known by the popular acronym based on its old name.
Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.
Source: presstv.ir
