UN Report: Child Mortality Slows

A new report by UNICEF, World Bank Group, World Health Organization, and the UN population division reveals that approximately 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024. This indicates a significant slowdown in the progress of reducing child mortality rates, even before global aid budget cuts implemented by major donors such as United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. Most of these deaths were preventable with better healthcare access and low-cost interventions. The report also highlights that global development assistance for health fell by nearly 27% in 2025, according to the Gates Foundation, further jeopardizing child survival gains. Key causes of death include complications from preterm birth, infectious diseases like malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea, and severe acute malnutrition, which directly caused over 100,000 deaths in 2024. Geographical disparities remain stark, with Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounting for the majority of deaths. Officials like Katherine Russell, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Li Junhua have called for renewed political commitment and sustained investment to address these challenges.