On average, one woman in 30 is likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, and seven out of 10 women will lose a child in their lifetime. Despite global improvements in children’s and maternal health, inequality between the world’s richest and poorest mothers and children is widening.
In two-thirds of the 36 developing countries among the 179 nations surveyed, the poorest urban children are at least twice as likely to die as their wealthier counterparts, according to the report.
“There has been a fatalistic acceptance from both communities and governments,” Professor Joy Lawn, a Ugandan-born paediatrician at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AllAfrica in a telephone interview.
Save the Children is calling on world leaders, philanthropists and the private sector to meet and commit to the Five Point Newborn Promise in 2014.
Save the Children argues that most of these deaths are preventable.
WHO blames years of underdevelopment and neglect from the international community for the dire situation in CAR.
The charity compared factors such as maternal health, child mortality, education and income in 176 countries.