scorecard

At the opening of Peter Robinson’s photo exhibit, Alice Slater and I were

Remembering taking The End Hunger Briefing in the 80’s and celebrating

The Hunger Project’s success in raising global awareness as child mortality

became one of the Millennium Development Goals. The Hunger Project

defined ending hunger as having a national infant mortality rate below 50.

Less than 50 deaths before their first birthday per thousand live births was

equivalent of the canary in the coal mine. The source for this statistic (and

many others) is UNICEF’s report on the State of the World’s Children which

might be seen as a report card on how well we are managing global good.

            Back around the mid-80’s, 42,000 children (child mortality is how many die

Before their 5^th birthday) each year. The 2014 State of the World’s Children Report (available at www.unicef.org) cites 6.6 million child deaths from preventable causes in 2012. Dividing by 365 gives a daily rate of about 18,000.  Substantial progress has been made yet having 18,000 deaths from preventable causes every day might still be called the hidden holocaust. 56 countries have child mortality rates over 50 as of 2012. The tpo ten are:

 

Sierra Leone 182 1

Angola 164 2

Chad 150 3

Somalia 147 4

Democratic Republic of the Congo 146 5

Central African Republic 129 6

Guinea-Bissau 129 6

Mali 128 8

Nigeria 124 9

Niger 114 10

 

            Food is not scarce. Ability to pay for food is scarce. For the 6 billion people on the planet, UNICEF estimates one in five lives below the poverty line of $1.25 per day or about 1.2 billion people. This number is about the same as the number for how many do not have access to electricity.