Topic: Reducing Infant Mortality
Country: Benin
Delegate Name: Allie Pail
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Benin position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
A phrase commonly heard is “today’s youth are tomorrow’s future,” and this phrase is very relevant to the subject of infant mortality. Reducing infant mortality by two thirds since 1990 is Millennium Development Goal Four; this goal was adopted in 2000 and was set to be reached by the year 2015. Although we have failed to achieve this goal vast improvements have been made. In 2013, only 6.3 million children died, compared to the 12.7 million in 1990; although this is still a very high number, it has been cut in half since 1990. The causes of death for children under five years of age can come from pneumonia, HIV/AIDS, or lack of healthcare before and after birth, but half of child deaths around the globe are because of undernutrition. Infant mortality is a very complex issue that is intertwined with many other issues present around the globe (for example, lack of food as listed above), and such a knotted and layered issue will need to be addressed layer by layer.
The Republic of Benin is very involved with the issue of infant mortality, as it is ranked 25th out of 224 countries in terms of infant mortality rate. Benin is also a part of the Countdown to 2015 Initiative, which is a program that tracks 75 nations and their progress in the issue of infant mortality. Through the Countdown to 2015 Initiative, Benin has reduced its infant mortality rate from 180 to 100, reduced its maternal mortality ratio from 600 to 340, and increased the percentage of births attended by a skilled health personnel from 60% to 77%, all over the time span of 1990 to 2015. Benin’s own goals for improvement regarding infant mortality rate, along with the rest of the globe, were not met, but drastic improvement was shown. The Republic of Benin would like to continue to improve its infant mortality rates through previously established programs, as the results from past years have proved to have a positive impact.
Being a rather underdeveloped nation, the Republic of Benin recognizes the challenge of having a large rural community that, for the most part, is largely inaccessible. The inaccessibility goes both ways, however, as it is difficult for women to travel outside of their small communities to receive care during childbirth, and it is also difficult for healthcare workers to respond to emergencies quickly in rural areas. The Republic of Benin believes that to resolve this issue, it is very important to have at least one healthcare worker per 1,000 people in every rural area; rural is not defined in numbers, but an urban area is considered to have 50,000 or more people, and an urban cluster is considered to have 2,500 to 50,000 residents, as stated by the United States Census Bureau. Healthcare workers could be provided by NGO’s such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, and Benin would also be open to receiving aid from US organizations such as the Peace Corps. In rural areas, Benin would like to stress having an adequate number of healthcare workers (at least one per 1,000 people) and emphasize safe at-home births with informational advertisements, while in urban areas Benin would like to improve hospitals and healthcare centers. The Republic of Benin expects to find allies in the US, France, India, the United Kingdom, and bordering African nations.
