Sunday, May 13, 2012

In Today's "The Daily Monitor" Newspaper

Ethiopia stands 25th in LDC mother's index
by Fikremariam Tesfaye


ADDIS BEBA - The Mother's Index of Save the Children's Thirteenth State of the World's Mothers Report puts Ethiopia at 25th out of the 42 least developed countries.
     During a report launching press conference held on Friday here, Deputy Country Director for Programs (Save the Children), Duncan Harvey said, "The ranking which compares 165 countries around the globe looks at factors such as mother's health, education and economic status, as well as critical child indicators such as health and nutrition."
     According to the report, Ethiopia performs better than many of its peers on a number of indicators. Female life expectancy is up 4 years (to 62 years) and access to safe drinking water has risen 38 to 44%.
     At 62 years, female life expectancy is above average. Gross enrollment in primary school is much higher than the average, although only 9 girls for every 10 boys are enrolled, so improvement is still needed to get girls in school and keep them there, report added.
     According to the report, however, more efforts are needed to reach the MDG target. One in every 17 Ethiopian children dies before their first birthday, and one in every 11 children dies before the fifth birthday, according to the 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS).
     The report puts Niger as the worst place to be a mother in the world replacing Afghanistan for the first time in two years and Norway comes in at first place of the index.
     The report indicated that malnutrition is the underlying cause of more than 2.6 million children's deaths each year and 171 million children (or 27%) of all children globally are stunted, meaning their bodies and minds have suffered permanent, irreversible damage due to malnutrition. 
     Senior Nutrition Advisor with the Ministry of Health, Dr. Frew Lemma, also said much of a child's future is determined by the quality of nutrition in the first 1,000 days. If children do not get the right nutrients during this period, the damage is often irreversible.
     "We urgently need global leadership on malnutrition that results in key nutrition projects being rolled out for mothers and babies to ensure their health and survival," he added.
     According to the recommendation of the report, investing in proven, low-cost solutions to save children's lives and prevent stunting; investing in health workers; helping more girls go to school; increase government support for proven solutions to fight malnutrition and ave lives; as well as improving laws, policies, and actions that support families and encourage breastfeeding, are among others.
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