AFRICA: Mapping health budgets and child deaths

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JOHANNESBURG, 28 July 2010 (PlusNews) - As many African countries battle to bring down staggering rates of maternal and child mortality, maternal and child health made for a fitting theme at the African Union (AU) Summit this week in Kampala, Uganda.

At the summit, African leaders came under fire for failing to live up to the 2001 Abuja Declaration, in which they agreed to commit at least 15 percent of their national budgets to health. To date, only about five countries have done so.

Using data from a recent report by Countdown to 2015, a group monitoring maternal and child health, IRIN/PlusNews has mapped the percentage of national budgets allocated to health against mortality rates of children younger than five years.

View the map to see what percentage of child deaths were AIDS-related, and how deaths in young children match up against efforts to meet the Abuja targets.