Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) calls for reducing the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. As global momentum and investment for accelerating child survival grow, monitoring progress at the global and country levels has become even more critical. Generating accurate estimates of under-five mortality poses a considerable challenge because of the limited data available for many developing countries. In 2004 the United Nations established the Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME) to advance the work on monitoring progress towards MDG 4 and to enhance country capacity to produce timely and properly assessed estimates of child mortality. This report presents the IGME’s latest estimates of infant and under-five mortality and assesses progress towards MDG 4 at the country, regional and global levels.
The most recent IGME estimates show that nearly 8.1 million children under age five died in 2009—or more than 22,000 children a day. Still, these figures reflect substantial progress. Globally, the under-five mortality rate has fallen from 89 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 60 in 2009. But the rate of decline—a one-third reduction over 20 years—is insufficient to meet MDG 4, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and Oceania.