AFRICA: Mothers and children facing dire conditions - NGO

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ADDIS ABABA, 4 May 2005 (IRIN) - Several African countries performed poorly in a study of 110 nations worldwide that details health and educational opportunities for mothers and children, the NGO Save the Children said in a new report released on Tuesday.

In its report: "State of the World's Mothers 2005", the NGO ranked Burkina Faso and Mali as the worst countries for women and children, while Ethiopia, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo were not far behind.

"Conditions for children and mothers in the bottom-ranked countries are devastating," Charles MacCormack, president of Save the Children, said in the report.

"Many children are fortunate just to survive the first five years of life and have a chance to go to school," he added.

The study found that in Mali, one in eight children will die before they reach their first birthday, while 10 percent of its women will die during childbirth.

In Burkina Faso, fewer than one in 10 women can read and write. In Ethiopia, just a quarter of the population has access to clean water. Three-quarters of pregnant women in DR Congo are anaemic and just five percent of women in Chad use modern contraceptives.

Scandinavian countries swept the top rankings of the best places to be a mother, while countries in sub-Saharan Africa dominated the bottom tier. Seven out of the 10 worst countries to be a mother or child are in Africa.

In Sweden, which tops the list, nearly all women are literate. Ethiopia, in contrast, had a literacy rate of 34 percent for women. A mother in Ethiopia was 37 times more likely to see her child die in the first year of life than a mother in Sweden.

The report also stated that some 22 million girls were out of school in Sub-Saharan Africa, where education can make a big difference in a woman’s life. Educated women participated more often in government and in decision-making.

Sharing information was one of the strongest measures to fight HIV/AIDS, and also helped to ensure better health care for women and their children. The study found that family planning and trained birth attendants were key in boosting child survival and well-being.

Thousands of lives could be saved, the study found, through effective contraception. In Mali, where six percent of women use birth control, one in 10 mothers dies in childbirth, and one in eight infants dies before reaching age one.

"The mothers' index clearly shows that the quality of children's lives is inextricably linked to the health and education of their mothers," MacCormack added. "In countries where mothers fare well, children fare well. In countries where mothers do poorly, children do poorly."

The study was based on six factors: risk of maternal mortality, women’s use of modern contraception, births attended by trained personnel, anaemia rates in pregnant women, adult female literacy rates and participation in national government.

It also analysed infant mortality rates, gross primary school enrolment rates, access to safe water and children under age five who suffer from nutritional wasting.

[ENDS]