Childhood Mortality Rates in Sub-Saharan Africa

Since World War II, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen notable improvements in child survival; however, childhood mortality conditions continue to lag behind. Ghana is said to be “an island of peace and stability” in the volatile landscape of Sub-Saharan West Africa; a success story of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (Atakpu, 2004). Its success has put Ghana as the leader in human development among the countries in that region. Although, the infant mortality rate and mortality rate of children under the age of five is still rather high compared to the rest of the world. This problem has ranked the country as 135th out of 177countries studied for human development by 2007-2008 United Nations Human Development Report. Since child mortality continues to be a major public health concern in this region, implementations of efficient programs, cooperation of health agencies and through the highest quality support of the World Health Organization, the goal of reducing childhood mortality can be efficiently and steadily accomplished.

History of the development problem and the root causes

Ghana’s development as a country has been on the rise in the last decade, with a democratic government in place, peaceful elections and a growing economy. However, when it comes to the healthcare of the country there is much needed room for improvement. Budgets allocations to the health sector have increased significantly according to some sources but despite the improvements maternal and child mortality appear not to have changed very much. Reduction in infant and child mortality during the 1970s through the early 1990s have either stagnated or reversed. Ghana’s relative success in economic development has made it one of the more favore...

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...was established to provide routine and mass immunization exercises within the country. This program has had substantial progress but with large geographical variations as far as coverage is definitely a concern (Policies to Reduce Child Mortality, 2007). However, to increase the pace of policy implementation and reduce child mortality will need to be expanded with the addition of other interventions which need to be established under the national development policy framework. Some of the interventions include introducing high impact strategies for dealing with malnutrition, providing outreach services and clinics to deprived rural area, developing close to client services for the poor, getting a handle on malaria control, improving access to maternal and child services and improving access to reproductive health services (Policies to Reduce Child Mortality, 2007).