The State of the World's Children 1989 report focuses on some of the great social achievements of the 1980s which have played a major role in saving the lives of least two million young children each year. The report states, however, that the reversal of economic development in large areas of the Third World now threatens this rate of progress. In the thirty-seven poorest nations, for example, spending per capita on health has been cut by fifty percent and on education by twenty-five percent in the last few years. The rates of child malnutrition and child deaths in some nations have risen again after forty years of steady decline. Calling for action on debt-reduction, trade, and aid to restore the momentum for development, the report argues that the derailment of the development effort offers an opportunity to reexamine its past direction. Specifically, it demands a real development pact between industrialized and developing nations to focus on food and nutrition, water and sanitation, and health care and primary education, in order to meet the needs and enhance the capabilities of the poorest nations. Read More