It’s important to keep things in perspective. Much as we rightly criticize the U.S. for its less-than ideal policies towards parents and children, especially LGBT ones, we generally do all right here in the developed world. The humanitarian organization Save the Children today released its eighth annual Mothers’ Index, ranking the best and worst places to be a mother and a child in 140 countries, bringing this point into sharp focus.
Sweden, Iceland and Norway are the top three countries surveyed; Niger is last. The United States places 26th, tied with Croatia, Poland and Estonia. The difference between the top and the bottom of the list is striking:
Skilled health personnel are present at virtually every birth in Sweden, while only 16 percent of births are attended in Niger. A typical Swedish woman has almost 17 years of formal education and will live to be 83. Meanwhile, 72 percent of Swedish women use some modern method of contraception, and only 1 in 150 will lose a child before he or she has a fifth birthday. In Niger, a typical woman has less than three years of education and the life expectancy of a girl born today is only 45. Only 4 percent of women use modern contraception, and 1 child in 4 never sees a fifth birthday. At this rate, every mother is likely to suffer the loss of two children.
Zeroing in on the children’s well-being portion of the Mothers’ Index, Italy finishes first and Afghanistan ties with Niger for last. While nearly every Italian child—girl and boy alike—enjoys good health and education, children in Afghanistan face a 1 in 4 risk of dying before age 5. In Afghanistan and Niger, 40 percent of children are malnourished. In Niger, less than 50 percent of children are enrolled in primary school, and only one Afghan girl for every two boys is in school. More than half of all children in both countries lack access to safe water.
What to do? Save the Children is asking people to tell their members of Congress to support the Global Child Survival Act, which would increase funding for solutions like immunizations and antibiotics. I don’t know enough about this act to recommend it (or not) myself. On the face of it, it looks like a good thing, but I’m always leery of the Bush Administration’s foreign aid. Too often it omits funds for contraception or family-planning education other than abstinence. I’m not sure if there are other proposals floating around that would be any better in this regard. (Leave a comment if you have any insight here.)
If you feel moved to donate money to a humanitarian organization, whether Save the Children or otherwise, you may want to browse Charity Navigator or GuideStar, two services to help you find and evaluate charities. You may also want to write to your elected officials about the rather pitiful 26th position of the U.S. in Save the Children’s index, and ask what he or she is doing to improve matters.
The index begs the question (for me) of what the best countries are for LGBT families. I suspect that adding LGBT rights into the mix would shift a few countries up and down, but not change the basic strengths of Scandinavia nor the poor performance of sub-Saharan Africa.
Thanks to Abigail of Damn Straight for the link.