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	4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024 - Most deaths were preventable by UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality   Mar. 2026   An estimated 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024, including 2.3 million newborns, according to new United Nations estimates – highlighting a worrying slowdown in global progress on child survival.   Most of these deaths were preventable with proven, low-cost interventions and access to quality health care, the report stresses.   The Levels and Trends in Child Mortality report by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation shows that, although under-five deaths have fallen since 2000, the pace of reduction has slowed by more than 60 per cent since 2015.   Among its key findings, more than 100,000 children aged between one month and five, died directly from severe acute malnutrition – the first global estimate of such deaths – with some of the highest numbers recorded in Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan.   Experts however warn the true toll is likely much higher, as malnutrition weakens immunity and increases vulnerability to other diseases, while many cases go unrecorded.   “No child should die from diseases that we know how to prevent. But we see worrying signs that progress in child survival is slowing – and at a time where we’re seeing further global budget cuts,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).   Child deaths are not evenly distributed. In many countries, inequities based on geography, income, maternal education, access to water and sanitation, and broader social protections shape a child’s chances of survival.   Fragile and conflict affected settings face the steepest challenges, with limited access to essential health services and greater exposure to overlapping risks.   Yet even with these challenges, the global evidence is clear: where targeted investments have been made, child mortality has fallen sharply. But where health systems are fragile or under resourced, progress remains slow or has stalled entirely.   Infectious diseases remain a major threat, with the nine leading infections accounting for 43 per cent of under-five deaths globally. Beyond the first month of life, illnesses such as malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia continue to be leading causes of death.   Child deaths remain concentrated in countries where conflict, climate shocks, invasive mosquitos, drug resistance, and other biological threats continue to affect access to prevention and treatment.   Newborn deaths account for nearly half of all under-five mortality, reflecting slower progress in preventing deaths around the time of birth. Complications from preterm birth and those arising during labour and delivery are the leading causes, alongside infections.   Geographical disparities remain stark. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 58 per cent of all under-five deaths in 2024, while Southern Asia represented a further 25 per cent.   Children in fragile and conflict-affected settings are nearly three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than those elsewhere.   The report also notes that 2.1 million children, adolescents and young people aged 5 to 24, died in 2024. While infectious diseases and injuries remain leading causes among younger children.   UN officials warned that declining development financing is placing essential maternal, newborn and child health programmes under increasing strain.   “No child should die from diseases that we know how to prevent. But we see worrying signs that progress in child survival is slowing – and at a time where we’re seeing further global budget cuts,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.   “Too many children still die from preventable causes,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We must protect essential health and nutrition services and reach the most vulnerable families so every child has the chance not only to survive but to thrive.”   Li Liu, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health: “The science is clear: targeted investments in primary health care, maternal and newborn health services, routine immunization, nutrition programmes, and quality and timely data systems can save millions of lives.”   The report underscores that investments in child health with proven interventions such as vaccines, nutrition programmes and skilled care at birth are capable of saving millions of lives.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/progress-reducing-child-deaths-slows-49-million-children-under-five-die-2024 http://data.unicef.org/resources/levels-and-trends-in-child-mortality-2025/ http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/fast-facts-30-years-life-saving-therapeutic-food-children-yet-millions-more-still Visit the related web page
	UNICEF calls for urgent investment in life-saving services for children to meet urgent needs by Catherine Russell UNICEF Executive Director   UNICEF calls for urgent investment in life-saving services for children as global humanitarian needs reach new extremes.   Surging conflicts, rising hunger, global funding cuts, and collapsing basic services are driving humanitarian needs for children to extreme levels worldwide.   As UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children 2026 (HAC) appeal is launched today, US$7.66 billion is urgently required to provide life-saving assistance to 73 million children - including 37 million girls and over 9 million children with disabilities – across 133 countries and territories next year.   Across every region, children caught in emergencies are facing overlapping crises that are growing in scale and complexity.   Escalating conflicts are driving mass displacement and exposing children to grave violations at the highest levels ever recorded.   Attacks on schools and hospitals continue unabated, while verified cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children are rising sharply. In many crises, children and the aid workers attempting to reach them are being deliberately targeted.   “Around the world, children caught in conflict, disaster, displacement and economic turmoil continue to face extraordinary challenges,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Their lives are being shaped by forces far beyond their control: violence, the threat of famine, intensifying climate shocks, and the widespread collapse of essential services.”   The global humanitarian funding environment has deteriorated dramatically in 2025. Announced and anticipated funding cuts by donor governments are already limiting UNICEF’s ability to reach millions of children in dire need. Severe shortfalls in 2024 and 2025 are forcing UNICEF to make impossible choices.   Across UNICEF’s nutrition programming alone, a 72 per cent funding gap in 2025 forced cuts in 20 priority countries – reducing planned targets from more than 42 million to over 27 million women and children.   In education, a shortfall of US$745 million has left millions more children at risk of losing access to learning, protection and stability.   For child protection, rising violations coincide with shrinking resources, threatening programmes for survivors of sexual violence, children recruited or used by armed groups, and those requiring urgent health support.   “Severe funding shortfalls are placing UNICEF’s life-saving programs under immense strain,” said Russell. “Across our operations, frontline teams are being forced into impossible decisions: focusing limited supplies and services on children in some places over others, decreasing the frequency of services children receive, or scaling back interventions that children depend on to survive.”   At the same time, humanitarian access is being restricted at levels unseen in recent years. In many emergencies, UNICEF and partners cannot reach children trapped behind shifting frontlines, making sustained humanitarian diplomacy essential to secure access and to protect children from escalating violations.   UNICEF warns that more than 200 million children will require humanitarian assistance in 2026. Many live in protracted crises, leaving entire generations at risk of under-nutrition, denied education, exposed to disease outbreaks, and deprived of safety and stability.   “The current global funding crisis does not reflect a decline in humanitarian need, but rather a growing gap between the scale of suffering and the resources available,” said Russell.   “While UNICEF is working to adapt to this new reality, children are already paying the price of shrinking humanitarian budgets.”   UNICEF is urging national governments, public sector donors and private sector partners to increase their investment in children, prioritising flexible and multi-year funding; support locally led response and national systems; uphold humanitarian principles and the centrality of protection; and remove barriers that impede humanitarian access.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-investment-life-saving-services-children-global-humanitarian http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/remarks-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-launch-unicefs-humanitarian Visit the related web page
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