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New UNICEF study shows need to focus on equity
The global community can save millions of lives by investing first in the most disadvantaged children and communities, according to a new UNICEF study released yesterday. Such an approach would also address the widening gaps that are accompanying progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The new findings are presented in two publications: 'Narrowing the Gaps to Meet the Goals' and 'Progress for Children: Achieving the MDGs with Equity', UNICEF’s flagship report.
By comparing the effectiveness of different strategies for delivering critical health interventions to those in greatest need, the study found that targeting the poorest and most disadvantaged children could save more lives per US $1 million spent than the current path.
“Our findings challenge the traditional thinking that focusing on the poorest and most disadvantaged children is not cost-effective,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s Executive Director. “An equity-focused strategy will yield not only a moral victory – right in principle – but an even more exciting one: right in practice.”
Key findings of the UNICEF study include:
- An equity-focused approach improves returns on investment, averting many more child and maternal deaths and episodes of stunting than the alternative.
- Using the equity approach, a US $1 million investment in reducing under-five deaths in a low-income, high-mortality country would avert an estimated 60 per cent more deaths than the current approach.
- Because national burdens of disease, ill health and illiteracy are concentrated in the most impoverished child populations, providing these children with essential services can greatly accelerate progress towards the MDGs and reduce disparities within nations.
'Progress for Children: Meeting the MDGs with Equity', UNICEF’s signature report on progress toward the MDGs, presents evidence of growing disparities across a range of key indicators, including between developing and industrial nations, between richest and poorest quintiles within nations, between rural and urban populations, and between boys and girls.
The UNICEF reports are being released in conjunction with a report by Save the Children, 'A Fair Chance at Life: Why Equity Matters for Children,' which focuses on MDG 4, reducing under-5 mortality by two thirds between 1990 and 2015. The Save the Children report examines the disparities in progress on child survival between the wealthy and less well-off in countries around the world. It asserts that reaching marginalised communities is the key to reducing inequities and achieving MDG 4.
“The Millennium Declaration was designed to improve the lives of the world’s most disadvantaged people,” said Lake. “We believe this study’s findings can have a real effect on global thinking about how we are pursuing the MDGs, and about human development generally - helping us to improve the lives of millions of vulnerable children.”
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