Get on Track

People across the world urge leaders to ‘get on track’

In just over to weeks, over 106,900 people took part in our global campaign action to demand the UN 'get on track' to cut child deaths by two-thirds by 2015.

Adults and school children in 12 different countries, including Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, stood in lines to make their own 'tracks' to demand that world leaders honour their commitments to Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) - a reduction in child mortality by two thirds by 2015. In the UK, over 1,000 people added their support by signing an e-action. The campaign action tied in with a UN meeting focussed on MDGs.

We delivered the images from the campaign on giant postcards to UN Ambassadors, who promised to pass on the messages to their leaders.

Successes

At a national level, the Get on Track campaign had many positive outcomes, including:

  • In Afghanistan the Ministry of Health announced a fantastic new programme of action targeting child and maternal health
  • In Bangladesh the government met with NGOs and called on all involved to implement a programme of Infant and Young Children Feeding activities focusing on poor families in hard to reach areas.
  • In many countries the 'Get on Track' campaign helped highlight the importance of MDG 4 among local populations as well as governments.

While in New York, Save the Children also co-organised a meeting on maternal and child mortality, where several key commitments were made:

  • The UK government announced an extra £450 million to support national health plans in countries such as Ethiopia and Nepal
  • The Vice President of Burundi promised to extend free healthcare to all pregnant women
  • Read more about the commitments made (PDF 19.6KB)

How you can make a difference

In the world's poorest coutries, more than nine million children under the age of five, die every year. 2 million of these die on their very first day of life.

World leaders have promised to dramatically cut these deaths. We need YOUR help to make sure the keep these promises. Find out how you can help below:

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