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“This week John Battle chaired Save the Children’s Parliamentary briefing “G8 in Italy: what priorities for accelerating progress in saving 9.2 million children’s lives?”  Please find below the notes from the briefing.

At Save the Children’s parliamentary briefing 'G8 in Italy: what priorities for accelerating progress in saving 9.2million children's lives?' which took place on the Day of the African Child, David Mepham, Save the Children’s Director of Policy stressed the importance of putting pressure on governments to honour their pledges in relation to reducing child mortality rates.

Mr. Mepham began by reminding his audience that 9.2 million children under the age of five die each year, 97% of those in developing countries. The campaign on child mortality which Save the Children was launching was of a new style, he stated, focusing on mobilising the public and attempting to generate political demand for change within developing countries.
A small number of diseases were a major cause of these deaths, he noted, along with a number of other factors including a lack of access to healthcare, maternal and child under-nutrition, water and sanitation as well as women’s empowerment. Poor governance, inequality and poverty were also key issues he stated.
Action was necessary on all these levels he pointed out and he called on governments to honour their millennium development goal pledges in relation to reducing child mortality rates.
A focus should exist on ensuring those countries which have high rates of child mortality work towards putting credible plans of action in place and these should be matched by a commitment from donor countries where those plans exist in his opinion. Mr. Mepham also stated that a focus should exist on ensuring equity for the most marginalised and poorest communities so they become empowered to demand their rights through initiatives like social protection.
Mr. Mepham finished his contribution by reiterating the opportunity which existed during the G8 meeting in Italy next month to hold world leaders to their pledges on this issue.

Next to speak was Alison Evans of the Overseas Development Institute. Ms. Evans began by pointing out that a number of crises had affected developing countries in recent years including food, fuel and now financial. She stated the effect of these co-variant shocks was the setting back of the child survival cause.
Capital flows to developing countries had fallen dramatically, she noted, with per capita growth rates in Africa estimated to fall for the first time since the 1990s. The impact on remittances and aid flows could be significant she observed. In her opinion however the most pernicious impact of these crises was the food prices had not fallen and nutrition issues were uppermost for child survival. ODI work around the issue had found that mothers and children take the brunt of these economic contractions, she observed.
Social protection must be key to the agenda going forward, in her opinion, most notably ensuring resources pledged by G20 leaders were targeted to building these systems. As a final point Ms. Evans echoed Mr. Mephan’s sentiments on the importance of tackling child mortality.

Rotimi Sankore, Co-Ordinator of the Africa Public Health Allicance added to proceedings by reminding those present that it was important to look beyond statistics and remember on an individual level the mothers who lose their children. On this point he observed it was important to think about protecting parents’ health also and tackling disease was key.

His Excellency the High Commissioner for Mozambique, Antonio Gumende began his contribution by commending the work of Save the Children in this area. He hoped development goals would feature prominently during the G8 summit, he stated. Mr. Gumende explained how Mozambique had developed in recent years. Absolute poverty had fallen by 20% since 1997 and income per capita had increased four-fold as well access to education expanding rapidly. Despite these advances a number of challenges remain including tackling malaria and HIV/Aids and the percentage of children reaching secondary school. Finishing, Mr. Gumende, in common with other people, reiterated the importance of the upcoming G8 summit in putting pressure on governments to honour aid pledges.

Tom Clarke, MP, asked the panel their views on transparency. Mr. Mephan noted it was important to place within the public domain how well countries were doing in terms of child development targets. Alison Evans also pointed out that greater transparency was necessary within the aid system.
The briefing ended with the Chair, John Battle MP, reiterating the importance of the issue of child mortality, most particularly because of the waste of human potential that will otherwise result.”

©John Battle MP 19 June 2009