JAMAICA will not meet the United Nations’ Millennium Developments Goal (MDG) for reducing infant and maternal mortality levels this year.

This was confirmed in the latest publication from the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), the annual Economic and Social Survey Jamaica (ESSJ), which was tabled yesterday in the House of Representatives.

The ESSJ said that while the country was on track to meet some important targets, including those related to HIV/AIDS, such as transmission of the disease from mother to child, it has been lagging behind in the areas of maternal health and infant mortality.

“These targets will not be met,” the PIOJ admitted in the ESSJ, while suggesting that there are accelerated programmes which are designed to fast-track their achievement beyond 2015.

According to the PIOJ, in terms of MDG 5, which aims at improving maternal health, or the health of mothers; which MDG 4, which seeks to reduce infant mortality, or reduce deaths among babies, there has been some success. These, it said, relate to universal access to reproductive health, which has been reflected in a decline in fertility levels, reaching a low of 2.4 women in 2008, and the fact that 99 per cent of pregnant women receive antienatal care and nearly all were attended to by a skilled birth attendant.

However, Jamaica had been falling too far behind to meet the targeted two-thirds reduction in infant mortality (under five years of age), or the 75 percent reduction in maternal mortality by 2015.

The United Nations reported that child mortality has halved since 1990 around the world, with six million fewer deaths in 2012 than in 1990, dropping from 90 to 48 deaths per thousand live births. But although this happened in all regions, excepting sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, it will take until 2028 to reach this goal, globally, at the current rate.

Most of the 6.6-million deaths in children under age five in 2012 were from leading infectious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria. Moreover, 2.9-million deaths occurred during the first 28 days of life-the neonatal period. Many under-five deaths occur in children already weakened by undernutrition, mainly in low-income countries where malnutrition and infectious diseases are highly concentrated, predominantly among the poor.

The UN insists that it is possible to curb preventable child deaths regardless of the income level of the country or household. But it said that political will is required to make the achievement.

A statement from the UNICEF, which is still available on the agency’s website in Jamaica, quotes its representative as reflecting on his first 100 days here two years ago that, while Jamaica was on track to achieving a number of the MDGs, the notable lack of progress in some areas was disconcerting.

“Despite the high level of antenatal care received by pregnant women, far too many women are still dying before or during childbirth. In order to reach one of the targets of MDG 5, Jamaica will need to reduce its maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by three-fourths before the year 2015. With the reported MMR of 95 deaths/100,000 live births not changing significantly in the last two decades, achieving this goal will take a concerted and accelerated effort,” the representative said.