Dapat masarap maging bata diba? -- Zaijian Jaranilla on MDG no. 4

Child actor Zaijian Jaranilla who portrayed the role of miraculous boy "Santino" from the hit series May Bukas Pa of ABS-CBN pleads to everyone, candidates and voters alike, to support MDG No. 4 which is to reduce child mortality.

Zaijian Jaranilla on MDG No. 4

Millennium Development Goal No. 4 aims to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the mortality rate of children, under-five years old.

Backgrounder:

Based on data from the Technical Working Group on Maternal and Child Mortality, under-five mortality rate (U5MR) was 80 deaths per 1,000 live births for 1990. This rate declined to 48 in 1998 and to 42 in 2003. In 2006, using results of the Family Planning Survey (FPS) of NSO, the rate fell down further to 32 deaths per 1,000 live births. For the period 1990-2006, the decline was about 60 percent. This suggests a high likelihood of meeting the target of 26.7 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2015.

Infant mortality rate (IMR) has also been decreasing from 57 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990, to 35 in 1998, to 30 in 2003 (see Figure 6) and in 2006, it declined further to 24 deaths. The decline from 1990 to 2006 in infant mortality rate was about 58 percent. Similarly, the likelihood of attaining the MDG target for IMR is high. It should be further noted that the MTPDP 2004-2010 aims to reduce the IMR to 17 per 1,000 live births by 2010, a much greater decline than the 2015 MDG target.

Still, there were regions that in 2006 had infant mortality rates exceeding the national average of 24 deaths per 1,000 live births. These were Cordillera (29), MIMAROPA (32), Bicol (26), Eastern Visayas (29), Zamboanga (38), Davao (28), CARAGA (28), and the ARMM (31).

Source: www.undp.org.ph