[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 94 (Tuesday, July 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  UNICEF PROGRESS OF NATIONS REPORT CHILD NUTRITION NEEDED AS PART OF 
                              FOREIGN AID

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, the Senate has recently passed the 
foreign operations appropriations bill. This bill will soon go to 
conference committee. I would like to take this opportunity to tell my 
colleagues about UNICEF's recently released annual Progress of Nations 
report.
  This report offers a country-by-country comparison of the progress 
made in meeting the basic needs of children and families. The report 
expresses the hope that ``development also means action to protect the 
vulnerable and to invest in adequate nutrition, safe water, primary 
health care, basic education, and family planning.''
  Nearly 13 million children die each year of preventable malnutrition 
and disease; victims not of war, but of chronic poverty; dying not of 
massacres but of measles and dehydration. And we know what to do to 
prevent this.
  The report indicates that due to increased global immunization rates, 
there are 3 million fewer child deaths each year, with 1\1/2\ million 
fewer deaths due to prevention of measles alone. Yet 1 million children 
still die each year of measles and over half a million newborns still 
die of tetanus.
  In the early 1980's, 4 million children were dying annually of 
dehydration due to diarrhea. The report highlights that with oral 
rehydration therapy, a simple Gatorade-like solution now utilized by 
nearly 40 percent of the world's families, 1 million child deaths are 
prevented each year. Yet 3 million children still die each year of 
diarrheal dehydration, and at least half of those deaths could be 
prevented by the therapy.
  Basic education is also an important goal for foreign aid. World Bank 
studies estimate that each additional year of education results in a 
10-percent decrease in birth rates and in child death rates, and a 10- 
to 20-percent increase in wages.
  Madam President, I believe that the UNICEF report shows that the 
foreign aid appropriations bill should retain provisions aimed at 
funding child survival and nutrition programs around the world. I am 
sure that my colleagues feel the same. Certainly saving children's 
lives should be a high priority of our foreign aid.

                          ____________________