Hunger is now the biggest threat to child development across the world, with global progress on eradicating malnutrition slowing, stalling, or sliding into reverse in some countries. But a new international index from Save the Children also reveals that some poor countries are making greater  progress in reducing child deprivation. 

For example, the new index reveals that Ethiopia and Malawi, among the poorest African countries, have made the largest reductions in child deprivation in the region while South Africa and Botswana have seen an increase in child deprivation despite being among the richest African countries and experiencing high economic growth at the same time.

The Child Development Index is the world's first to give a true picture of global progress on child deprivation. No other index ranks country performances globally, monitoring and comparing progress on three key areas specific to children; health, education and hunger.

David Mepham, Save the Children's Director of Policy, said: "The significant reductions in child deprivation in countries like Malawi, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Tanzania shows that improvements in child's well-being are possible - even in the poorest countries. The key is having pro-poor policies in place such as making education and healthcare affordable."

However, hunger continues to be the biggest stumbling block for the majority of countries  and is responsible for a staggering 3.5 million child deaths every year and our study shows that progress in eradicating hunger has dramatically slowed down. In the current climate of spiraling food prices, malnutrition continues to be widely neglected.

The Child Development Index, Holding Governments to Account for Children's Wellbeing, also finds:

• The Middle East and North Africa saw a complete stalling of its progress on malnutrition despite making one of the largest reductions in child mortality cutting its rate by more than half. Overall progress in Iraq, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza has dramatically reversed.
• In Asia, the largest improvements in child wellbeing have been secured by countries like Bangladesh and Bhutan, and considerably less progress has been achieved in India and Pakistan.
  Latin America and Caribbean region performed the best, improving child well-being by almost 60%.
• International donors have focused their attention on reducing child mortality giving little priority to monitoring malnutrition and allocating it few direct funds. Yet rising food prices and the global economic slow down will lead to an increase in child hunger over the next few years.

David Mepham, continued: "National governments and donors must urgently take decisive action to cut malnutrition rates, including support cash transfer programmes, supplementary feeding, the scale up of treatments for acute malnutrition and support for breastfeeding."

More information 

Contact 

Please contact Rachel Bhatia, Save the Children Media Manager, Tel +44 (0) 207 012 6469 /  +44 (0) 797 0511 242.

Website

You can view the Child Development Index in map form, download all the data, and compare different countries and regions for your own research and advocacy on our website: www.savethechildren.org.uk/childindex