
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994                   TAG: 9412190033
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-22   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAKING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE

"WHAT IN the world is going right?" It's a plaintive question often asked of media filled with reports of what has gone wrong. For those yearning for a spot of good cheer, a holiday treat:

More than half the world's developing nations are making real progress toward improving the lives - and the futures - of their children, according to a survey by UNICEF.

In 1990, the World Summit for Children set goals for improving the health, nutrition and education of kids by the year 2000. Among the objectives: to bring childhood diseases under control, eradicate polio and ensure that 80 percent of children have at least a primary-school education. As the campaign's midpoint approaches, it is clear that most nations have done more than make meaningless promises and symbolic effort. They have been working toward the goals.

Most impressive, perhaps, has been the progress made toward eliminating the cause of iodine deficiency disorders, the biggest single cause of preventable mental retardation in the world. For lack of minuscule amounts of iodine in their diets, women worldwide have given birth to millions of children who are cretins, tens of millions who are mentally retarded, and hundreds of millions with some mental or physical impairment.

All could have been healthy if their countries had taken one simple measure: iodized the table salt, a commodity all people use. At what cost? UNICEF estimates it's 5 cents per person per year.

The United States and Switzerland started iodizing salt supplies in the 1920s, and most of the industrialized world has done likewise. Ninety-four countries with iodine-deficiency-

disorder problems adopted an interim goal at the 1990 summit of iodizing 95 percent of salt supplies by the end of 1995. With a year to go, 58 countries are on track for reaching that goal, and another 32 can make it with stepped-up efforts.

You want more good news? All countries agreed to try to eradicate polio by the year 2000, and 55 nations set a target date of 1995. Forty-three are on schedule.

And by 1995, half the developing countries are expected to see a 95 percent decline in measles deaths from the 7 million to 8 million that occurred annually in the mid-1980s, before a massive immunization program got under way. More than a million deaths from dehydration caused by diarrhea also are being prevented each year.

These were two of the "big three" diseases targeted by the 1990 summit. Little progress, unfortunately, has been made against the third, pneumonia, which UNICEF now identifies as the biggest killer of children in the world.

And something as basic as good nutrition also remains elusive. Most of the developing countries at the 1990 summit pledged a 20 percent reduction in malnutrition by 1995. Of 87 that made the pledge, UNICEF projects that 21 probably will reach the goal.

In March, a World Summit for Social Development will be held in Copenhagen to discuss what U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali calls "a new crisis in human security": social tensions, mass migrations, and general disaffection of large numbers of people from their value systems and institutions.

Children should be at the center of the agenda then, and later. With healthy minds and bodies, they're the best hope for a secure future.

by CNB