World uniting to Save a Million Lives

from The Chronicle Herald

By ROSALEE GRETTE LYDON

It is a sobering fact that 9.7 million children die each year due to poverty-related causes and preventable diseases. While the statistic is staggering, there is much Canadians, as individuals and at the government level, can do to increase child survival.

Individual Canadians give generously of their time and money to organizations like Oxfam and Opportunity International, dedicated to improving living conditions in poor countries. It is heart-warming to read of the commitment by two students at Horton High School to raise $7,000 to buy 1,000 treated mosquito nets for distribution by the Red Cross in Africa (Dec. 27 story). Children are especially vulnerable to malaria, and treated mosquito nets are effective in preventing malaria.

It is imperative that the government step up to the plate in a more substantial way. The prime minister recently committed $105 million over five years to a proven initiative developed, in part, in Canada to improve the health of impoverished mothers and children in Africa. Stephen Harper further promised to double Canada’s aid to Africa by fiscal year 2008 (Nov. 27 CP story). The PM’s commitment is a good start to 2008.

A history of this initiative is instructive. In 2003, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) worked with UNICEF to develop a pilot project focused on community-level delivery of basic, inexpensive health care and nutrition. The three-year project led to a 20 per cent drop in child mortality and an estimated 18,000 lives saved. The cost was low: $500 for each life saved.

(It is noteworthy that Canada has led the charge in supporting a number of the effective interventions included in this initiative, like tuberculosis treatment, which has saved over 500,000 lives; vitamin A supplements; anti-malarial bed nets, a cause also espoused by the two students noted above; and immunization against measles, which has resulted in a 75 per cent drop in deaths due to measles.)

The director of UNICEF, Ann Veneman, subsequently praised Canada’s past commitment to this project and noted that we could "reach 60 per cent of children across sub-Saharan Africa by 2009 with these integrated … interventions." This would "mean saving the lives of a million children every year in that region alone."

The successful pilot project resulted in a global program called the Initiative to Save a Million Lives. This initiative, which the prime minister has now embraced, has attracted other partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the governments of the United States, Australia, Britain and Norway.

Canada signed the UN Millennium Declaration which addresses key development issues grouped under eight Millennium Development Goals, the first of which is to reduce extreme poverty by half by 2015.

The elegance of the Save a Million Lives Initiative is that it will tackle four of these goals in one swoop, resulting in decreased infant mortality, reduced maternal death, and reduction in death due to malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

There has been progress in reducing child mortality: 3,000 fewer children a day died of poverty-related causes in 2006 than in 1990. And Canada has contributed to this progress, but have we made enough of a contribution?

Canada has the hottest economy in the G7 group of the world’s wealthiest nations, yet our international aid as a percent of gross national income has actually declined. Canada’s aid declined from 0.34 per cent in 2005 to 0.3 per cent in 2006. Our level of aid is below the average of the world’s wealthier countries, which currently is at about 0.46 per cent.

I challenge Prime Minister Harper, the government and all members of Parliament to build on this recent commitment, and rather than $100 million over five years, why not $100 million each year for five years? In this way, Canada alone would save one million lives!

The PM’s pledge has now been matched by the UN, and it is possible that the UN would match a $100-million-a-year pledge.

Given Canada’s financial strength, surely the government could afford a $100-million-a-year investment in proven, cost-effective measures to save children’s lives.

Moreover, child survival is an issue that Canada can take a lead on globally. The campaign to Save a Million Lives should be on the top of the agenda at the next G8 meeting in 2008.

Rosalee Grette Lydon was a member of the host committee for the Global Microcredit Summit 2006.