Brief on the Global Consultation

on Child and Adolescent Health and Development

 

WHO and UNICEF held the first Global Consultation on Child and Adolescent Health and Development in Stockholm last week (12- 13 March). World leaders expressed their commitment to “a vision of a world where children and adolescents enjoy the highest possible level of health, a world that meets their needs and enables them to attain their full potential to intensify our efforts to achieve this aim, and to join together in partnership to seek bolder approaches to reach the most vulnerable, the most isolated and the poorest.” Queen Silvia of Sweden opened the meeting, which was hosted by the Government of Sweden.

 

Almost 11 million children die annually of preventable and treatable illness. “Of the 11 million who die, eight million are babies,” said WHO Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland. “And these deaths are not inevitable.” According to Dr Brundtland, a total investment of  US$ 66 billion annually by 2007 could save eight million lives a year, most of them children.

 

  • Almost 11 million children die of preventable and treatable illnesses, mostly in the developing world.

  • Eight million of these are infants; most are newborns in the first month of life.

  • The main causes of death are pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition –and most are related to poverty.

  • Adolescents –almost 1.5 million– die annually from substance abuse suicide, injuries, violence, disease and other preventable causes. Some 7,000 young people are infected with HIV every day.

The Executive Director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy,  recognized achievements in the past decade that brought better health for children, saved millions of lives and prevented disability. These included: oral rehydration therapy, childhood immunization, effective treatments against pneumonia, malaria and other deadly childhood diseases, iodised salt and vitamin A supplements, and progress in promoting breastfeeding and improved infant feeding practices.

 

These advances, however, failed to reach the 11 million children who continue to die each year. “In a global economy worth over US$ 30 trillion,” Ms Bellamy said, “it is clear that the necessary resources and know-how to reach every child are well within our grasp.”

The importance of health and social development in adolescence gained prominence at the meeting. Adolescents need the positive support of adults as they make critical choices in their lives and a safe environment with opportunities to develop into healthy, productive adults. “But for many adolescents today, the notion of adolescence as a time of opportunity for self-development, under safe and healthy conditions, could not be further from their reach,” noted Ms Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). “Many live in poverty or in especially difficult circumstances, with little access to knowledge and resources.” The UNFPA estimates that one in every six births in developing countries –and one in ten worldwide– is to a mother between 15-19 years old. Every day 7,000 young people are infected with HIV and, in Africa, adolescent girls are five times more likely to become infected than boys.

 

Jo Ritzen, Vice President at the World Bank, highlighted global inequities: “Poor children and adolescents, excluded from the prosperity and good health of better-off children, are disadvantaged from the start. Poverty and inadequate health systems compound their vulnerability to sickness, and possible death, despite our collective knowledge of effective and affordable actions that can protect children from ill health, and restore health to sick children.”

 

Mr Ritzen described the impact of poverty: “Poor children are more than six times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than wealthier children.” Poor health during childhood and adolescence also limits the ability of the young to reach their productive potential, escape poverty, and lead their nations to greater economic development.

 

The Consultation called on governments “to invest in child and adolescent health and to reach more effectively the poor children and adolescents who need assistance, and allow young people to be agents of change.”

 

Participating world leaders agreed that these messages from the Stockholm Consultation are important to be taken to the international meeting on financing for development this week in Monterrey, Mexico, and in May to the United Nations Special Session on Children in New York. These leaders argue that investing in child and adolescent health is a means to reduce poverty, and to address other conditions that threaten economic development and peace.