Today it was an honor for me to join African colleagues in health and development at the opening of the African Leadership for Child Survival – A Promise Renewed. Minister of Foreign Affairs Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Health Kesetebirhan Admasu, and the rest of the Ethiopian Government should be congratulated for hosting this meeting to accelerate the reduction of Africa’s child mortality rates.
Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Tedros Adhanom opens the African Leadership for Child Survival meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo credit: UNICEF
Ethiopia has made great progress in tackling child survival and strengthening their health sector. Since the development of Ethiopia’s first national health policy in the mid-1990s, Ethiopia and the United States Government have partnered to increase and expand access of quality health services to Ethiopians nationwide. The United States is proud to have a long-standing health program in Ethiopia with many of our agencies working in the health sector: CDC, DOD, Peace Corps and my agency, USAID.
Last June, Ethiopia joined India and the United States in cooperation with UNICEF to host a Child Survival Call to Action in Washington. More than 700 global leaders came together and challenged each other to reduce child mortality to 20 deaths per 1,000 births, or lower, in every country around the world by 2035. Assuming countries already making progress continue at their current trends, achieving this rate will save an additional 5.6 million children’s lives every year.
In the last two decades, Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced a 39 percent decline in the under-five mortality rate, a tremendous achievement that has been called part of the “the best story in development.” But despite this progress, we know that some countries are doing better than others. By joining together to share best practices, we can create a strong coalition to help each other’s children live to see their fifth birthdays.
An investment in Africa’s children is an investment in Africa’s future. I am pleased USAID is supporting the African Leadership on Child Survival meeting – and we are committed to being Africa’s partner in this effort for years to come.
