Child mortality in the Western Cape province: between modernity and developing world issues

Nancy Stiegler, University of the Western Cape

Infant mortality in particular and childhood mortality in general have declined for the last 40 years. Notable progress has been made since the 1970’s, but still today, more than 7 million children aged under the age of 1 die every year. Knowing the importance of the infant and child mortality, not only as a demographic issue but also as a yardstick for measuring the degree of development of a specific area, one can wonder about the significance of the infant and child mortality phenomena in the Western Cape Province. After having defined what infant and child mortality is, we will consider its determinants before analyzing the level and trends of childhood mortality in the Western Cape. We will finish by looking at the profile of children who die in the Province and finally we see what can be done to reduce infant mortality in particular and childhood mortality in general.