Mothers in Norway and Australia are in the best countries to bring up their children, while mothers in Afghanistan and many African nations fare worst, according to an annual Mothers’ Index.
The 11th annual Save The Children index, which ranks the best and worst places to be a mother, looks at the well-being of women and children in 160 states, including access to education, economic opportunities and healthcare.
The list last year was headed by Sweden, but this year Norway came first, followed by Australia, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark, with New Zealand, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany rounding out the top 10.
In the bottom 10, Afghanistan ranked last, preceded by Niger, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Sudan, Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea. Last year, Niger was last.
Taiwan was not included in the study.
This year’s list of 43 developed nations and 117 in the developing world highlighted the fact that nearly 350,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year and nearly 9 million children die before their fifth birthday.
“Conditions for mothers and their children in the bottom 10 countries are grim. On average, 1 in 23 mothers will die from pregnancy-related causes. One child in 6 dies before his or her fifth birthday, and 1 child in 3 suffers from malnutrition,” a statement from Save The Children said.
The US came 28th in the list, down from 27 last year, largely as its rate for maternal mortality — 1 in 4,800 — is one of the highest in the developed world. The US also offers less maternity leave than other wealthy nations.
“While the situation in the United States needs to improve, mothers in the developing world are facing far greater risks to their own health and that of their children,” said Mary Beth Powers, vice-chair of Save The Children’s Every One campaign.
“The shortage of skilled birth attendants and challenges in accessing birth control means that women in countries at the bottom of the list face the most pregnancies and the most risky birth situations, resulting in newborn and maternal deaths,” she said.
Save The Children said:
• Fewer than 15 percent of births are attended by skilled health personnel in Afghanistan and Chad, with only 6 percent of births in Ethiopia attended, compared with skilled staff present at almost every birth in Norway.
• In Niger one woman in every seven dies in childbirth. The risk is one in eight in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, compared with less than one in 47,600 in Ireland.
• In Angola, Chad, the DRC and Somalia, one child in five does not reach his or her fifth birthday. In Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg and Sweden only one child in 333 dies before age five.
• A typical female in Afghanistan, Angola, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea and Guinea-Bissau receives less than five years of formal education. In Australia and New Zealand, the average woman stays in school for more than 20 years.
• In Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen, women earn US$0.25 or less for every dollar men earn. In Mongolia, women earn US$0.87 for every dollar men earn and in Mozambique they earn US$0.90.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion