WASHINGTON: At least 409,000 under-five deaths were recorded in Pakistan in 2018, says the United Nations report on State of the World’s Children for 2019.

The study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) also reports 882,000 under-five deaths in India and 74,000 in Afghanistan in 2018. It warns that in many countries, huge proportions of children still suffer from stunting including around 38 per cent of under-five children in India and Pakistan.

A 2018 nutrition map of the world shows that South Asia tops the list of the countries where children are not growing well. The maps highlights they regions children under-five are either stunted, wasted or overweight.

The entire South Asia region is marked red because, according to this Unicef study, 49.9 per cent children in this region are not growing well.

Eastern and Southern African region follows South Asia on this deprivation map as 42.1pc children in this area suffer from malnutrition. West and Central Africa comes next with 39.4pc, Middle East and North Africa with 32.4pc, Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 22.5pc, East Asia and the Pacific with 17.2pc, Latin America and the Caribbean 16.5pc and North America with 11.6pc.

The study also includes useful data about Pakistan, showing that the country’s population at the end of 2018 was 212.228 million, of which at least 87.938m were under 18 and 27,291m were under five.

The report estimates Pakistan’s annual growth rate between 2000 and 2028 as 2.2pc. It projects that the country’s growth rate between 2018 and 2030 will reduce to 1.8pc. The data shows the number of births in 2018 was 5.999m and total fertility, live births per woman was 3.5.

In Pakistan, the under-five mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 139 in 1990 and 112 in 2000, and 69 in 2018. The annual rate of reduction in under-five mortality was 2.7pc in 2018. The under-five mortality rate was 74 deaths per 1,000 for males and 65 per 1,000 for females.

The national mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 65 in 1990, 60 in 2000 and 42 last year.

The probability of dying among children aged five was 14 deaths per 1,000 in 1990 and 10 in 2018. The annual number of under-five deaths in 2018 was 409,000. The annual rate of neonatal deaths in 2018 was 251,000. Of all under-five deaths in 2018, neonatal deaths proportion was 62pc.

The report also quotes Dr Sania Nishtar, the special aide to the prime minister, as saying that the impact of the costs on a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) could be massive. In Asia, the annual GDP losses from low weight, poor childhood growth and micronutrient deficiencies were average 11pc, she added.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2019