Millions could be saved for 1/2 bottled water cost

Millions of children’s lives could be saved for half the amount spent on bottled water each year

For immediate release
5 October 2009

A major new survey by Save the Children reveals that people around the globe think it is far more expensive to save millions of children’s lives than it really is, leaving world leaders under too little pressure to take action.

As Save the Children launches its biggest campaign to date, it estimates that an additional $40 billion needs to be spent each year to dramatically reduce the numbers of children dying needlessly. That’s less than half of the $100 billion that the world currently spends on bottled water each year. But, the global survey conducted in wealthy and developing countries reveals almost half of those surveyed (48%) thinks it costs at least $400 billion to make the difference.

Not only is it much cheaper to save children’s lives than people think, but the majority (68%) still believe that the number of child deaths can be cut. In New Zealand 78% believe that we can make a significant reduction in preventable child deaths over the next five years. This acts as a popular mandate for Save the Children’s EVERY ONE campaign, launching around the world on October 5th. At present, nearly nine million young children die every year – often of simple causes like pneumonia, diarrhoea, or lack of a trained midwife. Yet there are proven, cheap and readily available solutions that could prevent or treat illnesses that cause so many deaths.

“If people really understood how affordable and feasible it is to prevent these deaths, they'd be shocked. The pressure to push world leaders to act simply isn’t there, partly because of public perceptions that it’s too costly to do anything about it quickly. But, the public is right on this point: child deaths in poor countries can be stopped, and our campaign is urging EVERY ONE to say so, so that global leaders have no excuse not to act," says Charlotte Petri Gomitzka, Secretary General of Save the Children.

Gornitzka added, “In the wake of the devastation caused by the recent typhoons, earthquakes and tsunami in the Asia-Pacific region, Save the Children knows that children’s survival will be under even greater threat. Save the Children is currently accepting donations to help children caught in the middle of these emergencies. With further investment from donors in the future we can develop better ways to reduce the impact of disasters and save more children’s lives.”

The EVERY ONE campaign is being launched at a critical time for the world's children. Although the poll revealed that the public was optimistic that the international goal of cutting the deaths of young children by two-thirds by 2015 could be reached, the reality is that progress is far too slow. According to the World Bank, the economic crisis alone could mean up to 400,000 extra child deaths every year between now and 2015.

Save the Children believes it is now crucial that world leaders and in both wealth and developing countries are held to account for their efforts to put in place the money and solutions to save these lives. According to the survey, people clearly identified poverty as the greatest threat to children’s lives. However, those asked in China saw climate change as one of the biggest obstacles whilst Nigeria and Kenya also saw corruption as a stumbling block.

When asked what they would sacrifice to save the life of a child they’d never met, the majority would give up at least a meal to save the life of a child, whilst 23% of New Zealanders and nearly a third of Nigerians said they’d sacrifice a day’s pay. 20% of New Zealanders and 28% of Italians stated that they would happily give up the cost of a vacation or holiday.

Encouragingly, 59% of New Zealanders felt that it was equally important to prevent a child’s death wherever that child was in the world. Save the Children’s EVERY ONE campaign launching in over 40 countries today, aims to realise that vision, by getting the world back on track to meet globally agreed targets on cutting child deaths. The agency aims to ensure world leaders stick to their promises to cut child deaths by 5 million a year by 2015.

Gomitzka, continued: “This is the most ambitious campaign in the 90 year history of Save the Children. We know what needs to be done – we need to mobilise resources, to invest in healthcare in developing countries, to tackle under-nutrition, and to pay special attention to the plight of newborns, who continue to die in extraordinarily high numbers. But we can’t do this alone. Everyone – from world leaders to ordinary families – has a part to play to save millions of lives in the next five years.”
Ends

Save the Children is currently accepting donations for emergencies in Samoa, Philippines, Vietnam and Sumatra. Visit www.savethechildren.org.nz or call 0800 167 168 to donate.

For more information on the campaign please go to: www.savethechildren.net/every_one

Notes to Editors:
• Save the Children's EVERY ONE global survey was carried out by the polling agency TNS from 26August to the 12 September 2009, and by UMR Research in New Zealand from 24 to 27 September. It surveyed 16,000 people in 15 countries: Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, USA, India, Pakistan, China, Nigeria and Kenya.
• Save the Children estimates that an additional $40 billion needs to be spent to reduce the numbers of children dying needlessly by 2015 based upon: World Bank, 2008 The High Level Task Force on Innovative Health Financing for Health.
• According to a report, E Arnold and J Larsen (2006) Bottled Water: Pouring resources down the drain, Eco-Economy Updates, Earth Policy Institute, $100 billion is spent per year on bottled water.
• Globally, 55% thought it was far more expensive to reduce global mortality rates by 2/3 than it actually is.
• The developing countries were the most optimistic with Nigeria (85%), Kenya (84%), China (77%) and India (67%) all believing that it is possible or very possible to make a significant reduction in preventable child deaths.
• Nearly 9 million children die every year before the age of five (D You, T Wardlow, Pa Salama and G Jones ‘Levels and trends in under 5-mortality, 1990-2008, The Lancet, Sept 2009). The most vulnerable are newborns with 4 million dying within the first month and of those almost 2 million do not survive their first 24 hours (Lawn, Joy, Simon Cousens and Jelka ZupaN ‘4 million neonatal deaths: Where? When? Why? The Lancet. Volume 365, March 2005).
• According to the World Bank report Swimming Against the Tide: How developing countries are coping with the global crisis (2009) the number of child deaths could expand by 200,000 to 400,000 every year until 2015 as a result of the current economic crisis.
• World leaders have committed to reducing, by two-thirds, the under-five mortality rate by 2015 – Millennium Development Goal number 4. The number of children dying has dropped and now stands at 8.8 million. However progress is still slow and at the current pace the MDG won’t be achieved.

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