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| UNICEF/HQ00-0578/ Shehzad Noorant |
Few things in life inspire more awe or hope than the miracle of a newborn child. When well nurtured and cared for in their earliest years, children are more likely to survive, to grow in a healthy way, to have less disease and fewer illnesses, and to fully develop thinking, language, emotional and social skills. In just one generation, these human gains can help break the cycles of poverty, disease and violence that affect so many countries.
Out of 100 children born in a year, 30 will most likely suffer from malnutrition in their first five years of life, 26 will not be immunized against the basic childhood diseases, 19 will lack access to safe drinking water and 40 to adequate sanitation, and 17 will never go to school. In developing countries, every fourth child lives in abject poverty, in families with an income of less than $1 a day.
The most egregious consequence is that nearly 11 million children each year – about 30,000 children a day – die before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes. Of these children, 4 million die in their first month of life.
Even when children do survive, they too often do not thrive, suffering from diminished learning capabilities and other disadvantages that limit their overall prospects for reaching their full potential.
The process of giving children the best start in life begins even before birth. Poor nutrition and ill health on the part of a mother can lead to low birth weight in her children, putting them at much greater risk of developmental delay, malnutrition and death.
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Helping families ensure that their children survive and reach school age healthy and well nourished, intellectually curious, socially confident and equipped with a solid foundation for lifelong learning is at the heart of UNICEF’s mission.
UNICEF recognized the importance of early childhood long ago, based largely on its grass-roots work in developing countries around the world. Milestones in UNICEF’s efforts on early childhood include, since the 1970s, a leading role in some of the first large-scale programmes, including the Integrated Child Development Services in India and the Wawa Wasi (‘Children’s Homes’) and pre-school programmes in Bolivia and Peru; and in the 1980s, leadership of the ‘child survival revolution’, in which low-cost, high-impact health and nutrition interventions helped achieve huge reductions in global child mortality rates.
Over half of UNICEF’s programme budget is devoted to this critical period in a child’s life, spanning efforts in the five sectors of health, nutrition, education (psychosocial care and early learning), water and sanitation, and child protection.
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