Report highlights improvement in children's well-being, but health organizations call for stronger political commitment to maintain progress

"Children's well-being has improved dramatically thanks to increased global political will and efficient supportive programs and policies, according to a report released [Wednesday] by [UNICEF] and Save the Children U.K., but it also warns that benefits need to reach the most disadvantaged children for gains to be sustainable," the U.N. News Centre reports. "Among the most prominent accomplishments highlighted by the report is the significant decline in child mortality rates," according to the news service, which adds, "The authors of the report cite a number of factors for these advancements, but place particular emphasis on the high-level commitment and supportive government policies that have placed children's well-being as a priority" (11/23).

In related news, the WHO "warned on Saturday that only a stronger political commitment to child health could prevent a dangerous rise in mortality rates at a time of global economic turmoil," Agence France-Presse writes. "'During the previous decade, the number of under-five deaths dropped well below 10 million (per year) for the first time in almost six decades and kept on dropping,' [WHO Director-General Margaret] Chan said" at the opening of a maternal and child health event in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, according to AFP. "But Chan warned that even the world's richer nations had recorded no recent improvements and called a recent spike in food prices a worrying sign," the news agency notes (11/27).