An official in the Philippines has said more needs to be done to boost

Efforts to improve

An investment in child mortality has been called for by Unicef.According to Dr Mickey Chopra, chief health officer at Unicef, the time is ideal to spend money on reducing the number of deaths caused by complications during pregnancy.

Countries across the globe are not on course to achieve targets on cutting child mortality, officials have warned.According to Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 19,000 children aged under five died each day last year.

Efforts to tackle neonatal mortality in the developing world need to be delivering better results, an official has stated.According to Flavia Bustreo, assistant director general of family, women and children's health at the World Health Organization, there has not been "enough progress" on this issue in the last few years, Devex reports.

The high prevalence of

More babies would survive in Malawi if their mothers had better access to antenatal and neonatal healthcare, an expert from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has said.

A child's chances of survival in Tanzania could depend partly on the mother's level of education, a new study has suggested.According to the latest Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey, infants are more likely to die early if their mother has received only a limited education, the Citizen reports.

Scientists still do not understand why the prematurity rate across the globe is still going up, a new study has concluded.According to research published in the Lancet, the number of babies being born before 37 weeks of pregnancy is rising across the world.

Efforts to ensure a Nigerian state manages to meet its targets on child and maternal mortality are continuing apace, a regional official has noted.Lagos is currently committed to driving down the number of fatalities among children and mothers if it is to reach its Millennium Development Goals.