Topic: Reducing Infant Mortality
Country: Germany
Delegate Name: Hannah Ploof
School: Forest Hills Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Germany position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The problem of infant mortality isn’t a problem for a specific group, it’s a problem for the world. Our resolution to the solution must help both developed and developing countries, rural and urban, and all races. Germany believes that using already created programs and developing them further will be the most beneficial economically and with high efficiency.
We should expand the work of UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and Planned Parenthood Global to include more pregnant women and their babies. UNICEF has already helped many countries, including India and Chad, with lowering their infant mortality rates. Planned Parenthood Global has a facility in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Perú, Senegal,Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kenya. In more developed countries, there should be an increase in the information given during sex education to include breastfeeding and what to do before and after the baby is born.
In situations where there is not a health care facility nearby, we should place a trained nurse or doctor into the community. They can set up their work in a churches, schools, or another community building. If there are none available, due to the amount of supplies these healthcare providers will have, they could easily set up in a small hut-like structure. They should supply nutrients for the mother so she will be able to breastfeed, starting supplies for the infant once they are born, and other services the mother may need, such as relocation to a different community if she is being shunned from hers.
Although Germany has a low infant mortality rate of 3 babies per 1,000 births, we still see it as a problem that needs to be solved near immediately due to the effects around the world. The World Health Organization has already done some work, including immunizations to reduce the mortality rates in Cambodia, but this committee can expand that to cover a larger range of countries and more work being done.
