Cambodia Photo Gallery Index
Royal Government of Cambodia, Global Child Survival Partners
Pledge to Reduce Child Deaths by Two-Thirds
In Cambodia, about 63,000 children under five die of preventable causes each year, about 200 each day. The main causes of sickness and death are pneumonia (24 percent); diarrhea (24 percent); and neo-natal related causes at 34 percent. Malnutrition is an underlying cause of 54 percent of childhood deaths.
The Royal Government of Cambodia, The Global Child Survival Partnership and other development partners pledged during a high-level consultation May 30-June 2 to cut by two-thirds infant deaths from 95 to about 32 per 1000 live births and under-five mortality from 125 to 42 deaths per 1000 live births by 2015. The consultation came at the invitation of Senior Minister and Minister of Health His Excellency Hong Sung Hut on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia.
The Asian Development Bank, the European Commission
and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
coordinated by the UNICEF country office in Phnom Penh
joined the
Global Child Survival Partnership - a new alliance
that includes UNICEF, the World Health Organization,
the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), the British Department for International Development
(DFID) and other developing country, multilateral and
bilateral partners, non-government organizations and
the Gates Foundation - for the Cambodia consultation.
Participants included Dr. Jacques Baudouy, Acting
Director of Health, Population and Nutrition at the
World Bank;
Dr. Jose Martines, WHO's Associate Director for Child
and Adolescent Health and Development; Mr. Kul Gautam,
Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and Dr. E. Anne
Peterson, Assistant Administrator Bureau for Global
Health. Activities included a very well-attended initial
consultation with in-country partners and government
officials to introduce the CS Partnership and address
the issue of child survival in a country where infant,
child and maternal mortality rates are among the highest
in Asia; field visits with high-ranking country representatives
of partner organizations and representatives of national,
regional, and local government; a working meeting with
donor partners; and direct meetings with the Minister
of Health. The Royal Government of Cambodia also demonstrated
its commitment to the pledge at the highest level of
government when Prime Minister His Excellency Samdech
Hun Sen met the high-level delegation. There the Prime
Minister reaffirmed the importance of child survival.
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