Zambia has done well in enhancing child survival – Wina

Inonge Wina

Vice President Inonge Wina says Zambia has done well in enhancing child survival as evidenced by the reduction in the under-five mortality rate from 119 per 1, 000 lives births in 2007 to 75 per 1,000 live births in 2014.

Ms. Wina says Zambia has also made progress in reducing the infant and neonatal mortality rate from 75 to 45 per 1,000 births in 2007 and from 34 to 24 per 1, 000 live births in 2014.

Speaking during the launch of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Lancet Series of Advanced Early Childhood Development from Science to Scale in Lusaka today,  Ms. Wina says despite these rates being still high, government is optimistic that with the strategies and interventions being put in place, Child deaths will decline even further

Speaking in a speech read on her behalf by Health Minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, Ms. Wina has also observed the need for the country to invest in integrated programs for young children.

And Ms. Wina has bemoaned low learning outcomes amongst Zambian learners and the high school drop-out rates attributing this to lack of early childhood education.

She has directed all line-Ministries to ensure that a multi Sectorial Early Childhood Development policy instrument is developed to provide guidance in the implementation of Early Childhood Development.

Speaking earlier, General Education Minister Dr. Dennis Wanchinga said government has demonstrated that it is serious in promoting early childhood education by integrating Early Childhood Education (ECE) in the education sector and the establishment of the payroll system for the recruitment and deployment of ECE teachers.

And United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative El-Bashir Ibrahim has observed that priotising early childhood development is an economic investment.

He says evidence has shown that for every dollar invested in quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes, a return of between 6 dollars and 17 Dollars is realized.

Dr. Ibrahim adds that research has also shown that the rate of return for investment in quality early childhood development for disadvantaged children is 7 percent to 10 percent per annum.