SIDEBAR: Child, maternal mortality report: best and worst performers

Apr 16, 2008, 11:56 GMT

Johannesburg - The Countdown to 2015: Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival report released Wednesday shows most developing countries making little progress in reducing maternal and child deaths.

Of 68 'priority' countries, only 16 are on track to reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goal on reducing the mortality of children under five by two-thirds by 2015 compared to 1990.

They are: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines and Turkmenistan.

Peru, where 25 out of 1,000 children died before reaching the age of five in 2006, compared to 78 out of 1,000 in 1990, had made the most progress towards the goal.

The 12 worst performers - countries where child mortality had increased since 1990 - were: Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Here, Botswana, where 124 out of 1,000 children died before their fifth birthday, compared with 58 in 1990, had made the least progress.

The three 'priority' countries with the lowest maternal mortality rates were China, with 45 deaths per 100,000 live births, followed by Mexico and Azerbaijan.

The countries with the highest maternal mortality rate were all countries with recent history of armed conflict.

Sierra Leone bottomed the table in this category, with 2,100 deaths per 100,000 live births. Afghanistan and Niger tied for second-most deadly, with 1,800 women out of every 100,000 dying during childbirth.