Ndola — Mutinta Mwale is bubbling with joy simply because her two siblings who are under five years of age have all successfully completed their immunisations against communicable diseases.

Mrs Mwale has humbly heeded every call to have her children immunised and further accessed vitamin A supplementation coupled with the de-worming exercise whenever they were due.

Despite her busy schedules, Mrs Mwale who works as a secretary in one of the Government departments has no regrets that she ever took time off to attend some of these child health survival interventions whenever they were on as they have yielded positive results on her family. So the trouble that she took was not in vain. It has paid off.

In addition Mrs Mwale ensured that the two infants aged between two and four years old respectively sleep under a mosquito treated net to prevent them from catching malaria, which ranks as number one killer disease in the world.

Mrs Mwale and several other mothers whose children have successfully completed their immunisation have added on to the statistics, which has made Zambia today to be a success story in reducing child mortality for the past five years.

From the highlights of the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) report recently unveiled by Minister of Health, Dr Brian Chituwo showed that Zambia is on the lead as a model in Africa and across the world in renewed efforts to fight accelerated child survival and development which is a good effort worth celebrating.

United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) country representative, Lotta Sylwander confirmed this in Lusaka recently when she hailed Zambia for scoring such positive achievements in the provision of quality health care although she said a lot more needs to be done.

This was during the launch of the state of the African children 2008 report and seven films on child survival in Africa.

Why is Zambia in the lead? The answer is simple. In the past five years Zambia's under five mortality rate has fallen to an incredible 30 per cent from 168 per 1,000 live births to 119.

This can be greatly attributed to the political will that the Government of Zambia attaches towards child health-care and provision of quality health services to save the Zambian child.

Majority of children received BCG 92 per cent and at least one dose of polio vaccine 77 per cent .The coverage of vaccination against measles was as high as 84.9 per cent in 2007.

While the percentage of youngest children under six months who were exclusively breast-fed increased from 40.1 per cent in 2001 to 60.9 per cent in 2007.

The percentage of unstunted children less than five years decreased from 46.8 per cent in 2001 to 14.6 per cent in 2007 and the percentage of under weight children less than five years decreased from 28.1 percent in 2001 to 14.6 per cent in 2007.

Under malaria care and treatment only 38 per cent of children aged 0-59 months with a fever in the two weeks preceding the survey took an anti-malaria drug in 2007.

The percentage of children between 0-59 months who slept under an impregnated bed net on the previous night increased from 7.9 per cent in 2001 to 32.7 percent in 2007.

"Zambia's DHS report is indeed good news. The challenge of improving child survival rates in Africa is daunting, but not impossible as the Zambian results have shown," Ms Sylwander said.

Ms Sylwander, however, stated that community partnerships can play a crucial role in the health care and treatment and childhood illness in Africa, empowering African households and communities to participate in the health and nutrition of mothers new borns and children is a practical way to enhance the provision of care -especially in those countries and communities where basic primary health care and environmental services are solely lacking.

She said that the right to child survival is a basic human right of every living child. Yet the benefits of slashing child mortality extend beyond the number of lives saved.

The positive impact of enhancing the health of new borns, children, and their mothers are felt throughout the country,

In addition child mortality is a sensitive indicator of a country's development and telling evidence of its priorities and values.

"Investing in the health of children and their mothers is not only a human rights imperative, it is a sound economic decision and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course towards a better future," Ms Sylwander said.

The United Nations (UN) has estimated that in Africa one in every six children die from child related illnesses before they attain the age of five years.

But back home over a period of five years the nation has been working in conjunction with cooperating partners consistently in conducting massive awareness and immunisation campaigns that have yielded positive results.

More children have been ably immunised and the Unicef boss described Zambia's record as one of the best in the region with polio eliminated completely, maternal and neonatal tetanus eradicated and measles on course of being eradicated.

There was also a scaling up of the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT).

She hailed Zambia's positive achievement, as it was extraordinary.

Ms Sylwander said Zambia's strides meant that if the nation can really accelerate its progress year in and year out then it means the country can reach the Millennium Development Goal number 4, which calls for a two-thirds reduction of the child mortality rate by 2015.

According to the Unicef report on African children 2008, statistics show that in countries lying mostly North of the Sahara -Algeria, Egypt, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco and Tunisia, a number of children die before they reach the age of five . The average under five or child mortality rate for 2006 stood at 35 per 1,000 births meaning that in that year , approximately one in every 29 children died before their fifth birthday. Since 1990, each of the five countries in North Africa has reduced its child mortality rate by at least 45 per cent at a sub-regional average annual rate of 5.3 per cent -putting them all well on track to meet the Millenuim Development Goals MDGs 4. MDGs 4 seeks to reduce the under -five mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015.

The contrast with trends for child survival in Sub-Saharan Africa (including Djibouti and Sudan) could not be more striking. In 1970 the average under five mortality rate in North Africa was 215 deaths per 1,000 live births .

This was not significantly different from the 1970 rates for Eastern Africa , at 216 per 1,000 live births or Southern Africa at 216 per 1,000 live births or Southern Africa ,208 per 1,000 live births .But between 1970 and 2006 , North Africa reduced its under five mortality by 84 per cent , while the corresponding reductions in Eastern and Southern Africa were just 43 per cent and 30 per cent to 123 per cent and 146 per 1,000 live births respectively. With Central Africa and West Africa also failing to post strong reductions , Sub Saharan Africa as a whole including Djibouti and Sudan lowered its under five mortality rate by little more than one third during the same 36-year period.

Speaking at the same function, Dr Chituwo said the Ministry of Health would remain focused and strengthen its partnerships with cooperating partners and will utilise resources in a transparent manner to improve child survival.

Dr Chituwo attributed Zambia's positive achievements in the area of child mortality and maternal health to the New Deal Government's political will and prevailing peace and tranquility.

And Panos Southern Africa chief executive, Parkie Mboozi said his organisation would work together with Unicef in creating awareness and embark on training of media on enhancing child survival development using films.

The launch also coincided with the premiering of one of the seven films made by African filmmakers to support the on-going work for accelerated child survival and development across the continent.

Panos institute of Southern Africa were distributing the films in Zambia.

The report on the state of the African children 2008 statistics shows that for the first time since figures were collected, the number of children under five dying globally has dropped to below 10 million. Country after country is reporting significant improvements and the examples show what can be done when there is the commitment of resources and when communities -ordinary people are empowered.