In the past 20 years child mortality rates have reduced by 30 percent, far below the UN’s aim of cutting child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.
Geoffrey Keele from the U.N. children’s fund, UNICEF, says most East Asian countries are on track to meet the U.N.’s targets, but Pacific nations are a concern.
“In countries like Thailand, Malaysia, even in Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia is even doing quite well at the moment,” he said.
“Where we’re seeing less progress right now is in the Pacific.
“The Pacific has only seen a 30 percent drop in child mortality figures over the past 20 years and the Millennium Development Goal target is to see a two-thirds decline by 2015.”
New estimates show there were 2.2 million deaths of children under five in the Asia-Pacific region in 1990, but that number dropped to 700,000 in 2010.
