- Conference
- 2012 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2011
- Decision
- Carried
In the year 2000, at the Millennium Summit, one hundred and eighty nine members’ of states of the United Nations declared that they would spare no effort to achieve a set of eight goals aimed at raising the level of development, health and prosperity of the globe by the end of the year of 2015.
In 2009 this conference heard of the work that still needed to be done on Goals 4 and 5. Goal 4 aims to reduce child mortality. Steady progress has been made with the mortality rate for children under five declining globally by a third. All regions except sub Saharan Africa, southern Asia and Oceania have seen reductions of at least fifty per cent. In 1990 the death rate among the under fives stood at an astonishing twelve point four million annually, this declined to eight point one million in 2009. The success of this Goal has led to twelve thousand fewer children dying each day. But children from the poorest households are still two to three times more likely to die before the age of five than children from the richest households.
Conference, between 2000 and 2008 child death rates due to measles has plummeted due to improved immunisation coverage and the opportunity for a second dose. This led to a seventy eight per cent drop in measles deaths worldwide. But shortfalls in funding for measles control activities means that a number of priority countries are facing depleting resources for routine immunisations and immunisation campaigns. as a result, outbreaks of the disease are on the rise. Adequate funding and strong political commitment and high quality implementation are needed o ensure that the reduction in child mortality rates continues to fall.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 states that a mother’s education is a power determinant of child survival. In all developing regions, children with mothers with some education are less at risk of dying. A child’s chances of survival increase even further if the mother has secondary or higher education. Empowering women, removing financial and social barriers to welfare, encouraging more innovations to make critical services more available to the poor and increasing the accountability of health systems at the local level are all examples of policy interventions that could improve equity, with benefits for child survival.
Conference, every minute fifteen children will die due to a preventable disease. With this in mind, Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to continue to:
1)Work with Labour Link to lobby the Government to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are kept on track.
2)Work with Regional Women’s Committees and UNISON’s International Committee to raise awareness of the importance of the Development goals and in particular Goal 4.
3)To prepare a report to National Women’s Conference 2013 to show the work that has been done.