The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has predicted that Nigerian babies would expectedly make up 6.5 percent of the estimated 395,072 babies born globally today – the 2019 New Year’s Day.

Within Africa, Nigerian babies will account for almost 40 percent of all those born in West and Central Africa, and more than 23 percent of those born in sub-Saharan Africa.

Globally, over half of the world’s births are estimated to take place in just eight countries, including Nigeria:

India — 69,944

China — 44,940

Nigeria — 25,685

Pakistan — 15,112

Indonesia — 13,256

The United States — 11086

The Democratic Republic of Congo — 10,053

Bangladesh — 8,428

At current life expectancy rates, a child born in Nigeria today is likely to live only to the year 2074 – 55 years of age. A child born today in Denmark is likely to live until the 22nd century.

Only children born in three countries today have a lower life expectancy than that of Nigerian children: Central African Republic, Chad and Sierra Leone.

“We can and must do more to ensure that children born in Nigeria survive their first day of life – and are able to survive and thrive for many months and years to come,” said Pernille Ironside, UNICEF’s Nigeria Acting Representative.

Globally in 2017, about 1 million babies died the day they were born, and 2.5 million in just their first month of life.

In Nigeria, each year, about 262,000 babies die at birth, the world’s second highest national total, while every day in Nigeria, 257 babies die within their first month of life.

Among these children, most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis and pneumonia, a violation of their basic right to survival.

“In Nigeria today, only one out of every three babies is delivered in a health centre, decreasing a newborn baby’s chance of survival,” said Pernille Ironside.

“This is just one of the issues that need to be addressed in order to improve the chances of survival of those babies born today and every day.

“This New Year Day, let’s all make a resolution to fulfill every right of every child, starting with the right to survive.

“We can save millions of babies if we invest in training and equipping local health workers so that every newborn is born into a safe pair of hands,” said Ironside.

2019 also marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which UNICEF will be commemorating with worldwide events throughout the year.

Under the Convention, governments committed to, among other things, taking measures to save every child by providing good quality health care.

Over the past three decades, the world has seen remarkable progress in child survival, cutting the number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday by more than half.

But there has been slower progress for newborns. Babies dying in the first month account for 47 per cent of all deaths among children under five.

UNICEF’s Every Child Alive campaign calls for immediate investment to deliver affordable, quality health care solutions for every mother and newborn. These include a steady supply of clean water and electricity at health facilities, the presence of a skilled health attendant during birth, ample supplies and medicines to prevent and treat complications during pregnancy, delivery and birth, and empowered adolescent girls and women who can demand better quality of health services.

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