UNICEF requires action to achieve Millennium Goals

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) four will require accelerated action in reaching several other millennium development targets.



Millennium Development Goal four is aimed at reducing the global less than five mortality rate by two thirds by 2015.



UNICEF said among the improvements essential for achieving this goal is the reduction of poverty and world hunger, improvement in maternal health and control of diseases such as AIDS and malaria.



UNICEF said there needs to be improved water and sanitation, as well as provision of affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis.



Yesterday, the organisation released its 2008 State of the World’s Children Report.



In the report UNICEF raised concerns about the number of children dying before they reach five years old in Jamaica.



UNICEF said approximately 31 Jamaican children died before their fifth birthday in 2006.



This was slightly better than the year 1990 when 33 children died.