On the occasion of Day of the African Child, the Africa Public Health Alliance & 15%+ Campaign is calling on African governments to end the "5 by 5 Tragedy" of an estimated 5 million African infants and children under the Age of 5 dying annually of preventable, manageable or treatable health causes.

Rotimi Sankore Coordinator, Africa Public Health Alliance & 15%+ Campaign stated:

"While there may have been some progress over the years on infant and child mortality, such progress is clearly not enough and there is nothing to celebrate today."

"Not only is the scale of the loss a tragedy, the idea that there should be a celebration is a travesty. In reality the Day of the African Child should be a day of mourning across our continent."

"5 million child deaths a year is equal to roughly 13,700 African children dying every day of malnutrition, malaria, measles, diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, and other causes most of which are preventable, treatable or manageable. The rising levels of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV which is almost 100% Preventable will further increase Child Mortality. This is not what the children of Soweto whose struggle June 16 commemorates died for"

"By even the most generous standards, its difficult to see how the existing situation can be described as anything other than a failure of government policy on child health and protection in particular, and health development and financing in general."

He further stated that: "Even for those lucky or privileged to make it past their 5th birthday, their future is bleak."

"Healthy life expectancy across Africa is now at an average of 41.4 years [38.7 for Sub-Saharan Africa], compared to between 66.1 and 72 years for more developed countries. Its difficult to be optimistic about Africa's long term viability under such circumstance unless health development and financing policy improves drastically."

He underlined that: "For their to be any hope of meeting the `Millennium Development Goal 4 on reversing and ending Child Mortality, African governments have to meet their pledge to allocate 15% of national budgets to health, and per capita investment in health must also be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, or sextupled as needed. Strategic investment in vaccinations, health systems, human resources for health, and social determinants of health such as clean water, sanitation, food security and nutrition must also be implemented."

Special Notes:

1) The Africa Public Health Alliance and 15%+ Campaign salutes the life and work an outstanding African: Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Deputy Director for Africa, UN Millennium Campaign. 1961 - (Physical Departure) May 25th 2009. We also commiserate with our partners the UNMC team. Taju not only dedicated himself selflessly to the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals. He was also a tireless campaigner for all the Health and Health Related MDGs, especially on Child and Maternal Health. We call on colleagues across Africa and globally to join in the 40 day prayers and activities to commemorate his life from the 3rd and 4th of July. (For list of activities please contact: [email][email protected] , [email][email protected], and [email protected] ).

2) The Africa Public Health Alliance and 15%+ Campaign commends the African Union Commission on the launch of the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality in Africa (CARMMA), and calls for mass support for the campaign including urgent implementation of its goals by all governments.

3) The Africa Public Health Alliance and 15%+ Campaign believes that: Child health and protection should be at the top of every countries social justice and social development agenda. The first priority of governments is to ensure all citizens are alive and healthy. Without African children of today being able to equal the healthy life expectancy of more developed countries, Africa has no viable future - whether on a unified or un-unified basis - and the whole African integration and United States of Africa Project could shudder to a halt under the weight of the death of Africa's children, and overall falling healthy life expectancy.