If you look at the key countries that remain, the biggest single problem is access. And they are the future of these countries. The state of the world's children in 1999 contrasts starkly with a decade ago, when the 1990 World Summit for Children set out such goals as eradicating polio and reducing mortality rates for children under five. In many places, goals that then seemed plausible have been overwhelmed by the realities of the post-Cold War era, which has brought greater instability and disparities between rich and poor, Bellamy noted. Widespread iodine supplements have eliminated a major cause of mental retardation.
Most children receive basic education.
Millions of children have been freed from labor. And in a critical indicator of children's well-being, the mortality rate for children under five is declining in developing nations as a whole. That's not good enough. Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.