Factors that influence child survival

Dr PHETSILE DLAMINI:  If you look at poverty and food insecurity (MDG 1), the child will not grow well. The child will probably not have access to many services because of the poverty around his or her environment.

 

If you look at MDG 2 ‘€“ access (to) primary health education ‘€“ education impacts on the survival of the child’€¦ There’€™s an inverse relationship between the maternal level of education and the survival of the child.

 

MDG 3 ‘€“ the gender disparities are high risk if the mother has a very low socio-economic status and cannot make decisions. If the child is ill, she will wait for the aunt or the granny or the husband to ask for permission to go to a health institution. That’€™s an example of, sometimes, what can happen and those hours of delay impact. So, the status of the woman and the authority she has in decision-making of her health and that of her children can actually influence the survival of the child.

 

MDG 5 ‘€“ If the mother is of poor health status – they are the near-misses – the women that don’€™t die, but are incapacitated. Her mental state, her physical state impacts on how well she can care for baby, let alone if she is dead and you have the orphan, it really impacts on the survival of that child.

 

MDG 6 ‘€“ HIV and AIDS, malaria and other related infectious diseases ‘€“ if they are prevalent in any community (or) home ‘€“ it affects the survival of that child.

 

MDG 7 ‘€“ the environmental stability, the macro-environment: Look at drought, food insecurity – the family has less food, so you have stunted children, the mother is malnourished, the child also gets affected’€¦ The micro-environment of the child – if they are living in hazardous circumstances as some of our children find themselves growing up in where they are exposed to harmful substances, where they are exposed to many other agents’€¦ it impacts on their health.

 

And (MDG 8) ‘€“ The global partnerships: Without being provocative, I think we have seen in past years, where the help from partners ‘€“ who used to be called donors ‘€“ is fragmented and has vertical programmes, sometimes, does impact on child survival strategies and programmes in a country negatively because it depletes and over-extends the available resources, particularly, the human resources that should provide care. Occasionally, there are conflicting messages on the ground, which then, leave the mother or the child-carer not sure of what exactly is happening.

 

In fact, if you look at all the MDGs, they impact on MDG 4, they impact on the under-five mortality rate because if any of them is not achieved the risk of death for the child is much higher.

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