General Election 2010: Call for anti-poverty policies to prevent child deaths

Published on Saturday 17 April 2010 20:58

AS MANY as one million children aged under five could die around the world during the UK General Election campaign a charity has warned.

As all three party leaders are expected to talk about tackling poverty on World Poverty Day today, Save the Children demanded to know what measures might be taken to prevent such a death toll.

The deaths are largely from preventable or treatable causes, including pneumonia, malaria and measles, with one third of all children under five dying because of problems relating to malnutrition, it said.

Kitty Arie, the charity's development adviser, said:

"We need a prime minister who takes urgent and decisive action to stop these deaths.

"The fact that all three parties' election manifestos commit to spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on overseas aid shows that helping the world's poorest families really is important to the British public. But existing promises won't do that alone."