Lack of food, clean water and access to proper hygiene facilities is harmful to many children and their health. Around two million children die before they are even born, or at birth, often because the mothers are not getting the care they and the babies need before and during the pregnancy.

Around 1 in 7 of the world's children under the age of five are malnourished. It affects their development for the rest of their lives. Many children, on average 15,000 a day, that is one child every six seconds, die before the age of five. In low-income countries, at least half of young children die of preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, tetanus and AIDS. Only 6 out of 10 children with malaria receive proper care, and only half of poor children in countries with malaria have mosquito nets to sleep under. But much has improved: Since 1990, infant mortality in the world has more than halved!