[kictanet] Some good news from the Economist (for a change)

[Daniel Waweru]

http://www.economist.com/node/21555571

IT IS, says Gabriel Demombynes, of the World Bank’s Nairobi office, “a
> tremendous success story that has only barely been recognised”. Michael
> Clemens of the Centre for Global Development calls it simply “the biggest,
> best story in development”. It is the huge decline in child mortality now
> gathering pace across Africa.


According to Mr Demombynes and Karina Trommlerova, also of the World Bank,
> 16 of the 20 African countries which have had detailed surveys of living
> conditions since 2005 reported falls in their child-mortality rates (this
> rate is the number of deaths of children under five per 1,000 live births).
> Twelve had falls of over 4.4% a year, which is the rate of decline that is
> needed to meet the millennium development goal (MDG) of cutting by
> two-thirds the child-mortality rate between 1990 and 2015 (see chart).
> Three countries—Senegal, Rwanda and Kenya—have seen falls of more than 8% a
> year, almost twice the MDG rate and enough to halve child mortality in
> about a decade. These three now have the same level of child mortality as
> India, one of the most successful economies in the world during the past
> decade.


....

Kenya is a test case. It has cut the rate of infant mortality (deaths of
> children under one year old) by more than any other country. It has had
> healthy economic growth (4.8% a year in 2005-10) and a functioning
> democracy, albeit after horrendous post-election violence in 2008. But Mr
> Demombynes noticed something else: it increased the use of treated bednets
> from 8% of all households in 2003 to 60% in 2008. Using figures on the
> geographical variation of malaria, he calculated that half the overall drop
> in Kenya’s infant mortality can be explained by the huge rise in the use of
> ITNs in areas where malaria is endemic.


Daniel Waweru
www.kenyaimagine.com
Art and analysis; debate and opinion.
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