Achieving child health related Millennium Development Goals – Role of education

In 2000 United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), comprised of eight goals, 18 targets, and 39 indicators. Health is an integral part of development as health aids development and in turn development contributes to health. A close look at the MDGs reveals that health is an integral part of most of the goals, thus making it an important element in achievement of MDGs. Education has been found to be one of the most significant determinants of health. Mothers’ education compared to fathers’ education strongly influences the health status of the family. World Population Program at International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has generated a new and unique data set, which makes projections of population for 120 countries around the world by age and sex with regard to their educational attainment in the years to come (projections are available till 2050). Through this research attempts are made to project the achievement of child health related MDGs with the changing scenario in women’s educational status. Data from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), United Nations, and IIASA’s education data are used for this research. Applying different assumptions about decline of infant mortality rate (IMR), subsequent models predict the performance of countries in reducing IMR and the time frame for achievement of MDGs. Results show that even with the improvement in educational status of women in the years to come as projected by IIASA’s educational data, most of the countries will not be able to achieve the MDG target of reducing the IMR by 2/3^rd by 2015. Poor performing countries such as India, Kenya and Zimbabwe will need to make far higher investments in female education if the goals of reducing child mortality and improved health status are to be realized for future generations.