Research conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has shown that Ghana is far from achieving under-five and infant mortality rate set by the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4).
The target of MDG 4 is to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015, from the 1990 level. The country’s under-five mortality rate declined from 111 per 1000 live births in 2003 to 80 per 1000 live births in 2008.
At the launch of a summary of the report on the key findings of the fourth of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) with Enhanced Malaria Module and Biomarker in Accra, the acting Government Statistician, Mrs Philomena Nyarko, said the under- five mortality rate was 82 per 1000 live births which is far from the MDG target of 40 per 1000.
Whereas the infant mortality rate was 53 per 1000 live births compared to the target of 22 deaths per 1000 live births.
The MICS with Enhanced Malaria Module and Biomarker is a nationally representative sample survey of households, women aged between 15-49 years; children aged 0-5 years and men 14-59 years.
It was conducted in 2011 by the Statistical Service with financial and technical support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), USAID, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Japanese Government, ICF/MACRO, the Ministry of Health/ National Malaria Control Programme, President’s Malaria Initiative and the Navrongo Research Centre.
The MICS is also an international household survey programme initiated by UNICEF in 1995 to generate statistically sound, internationally comparable estimates of key indicators that can be used to assess the situation of women and children in the areas of health, education, child protection and HIV and AIDS.
The survey provides valuable information on the situation of children, women and men in Ghana, and was based, in large part, on the needs to monitor progress towards goals and targets emanating from recent international agreements. These are the Millennium Declaration, adopted by all 191 United Nations Member States in September 2000, and the Plan of Action of a World Fit for Children, adopted by 189 Member States at the United Nations Special Session on Children in May 2001.
Both of these commitments build upon promises made by the international community at the 1990 World Summit for Children.
The MICS also provides a tool for monitoring progress towards national goals and global commitments on the welfare of women and children. Ghana joined the global effort to increase the availability of high quality data in 2006 when the third round of MICS was launched.
The fourth round of the MICS focused on providing monitoring tool for the World Fit for Children, the MDG, as well as for other major international commitments such as the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS and the Abuja targets for malaria.
Mrs Nyarko said the reports would help the country measure progress and respond to data needs emerging from current international and regional initiatives aimed to promote economic and social development.
She added that the MICS was intended to generate statistically sound, internationally comparable estimates of key indicators that could be used to assess the situation of women and children in the areas of health, education, child protection and HIV and AIDS.
Highlighting on some of the findings of the report, she said variations in childhood death rate exist among different localities of residence.
“Children under-five years living in rural areas recorded a relatively higher mortality rate of 84 deaths per 1000 live births compared to the 72 deaths per 1000 live births experienced by their urban counterparts,” she said.
She added that despite the free health insurance for pregnant women, less than 70 per cent receive professional assistance at delivery.
Mrs Nyarko said the MICS-4 results suggested generally a lot of progress since MICS-3 in 2006.
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