The first, most conventional way to characterize the global health picture is a description of health and disease. Today, the overall picture for child health and maternal health in poor countries is worrisome indeed. While child mortality has steadily declined in the last two decades, still approximately million children under the age of five die each year. Progress on key indicators is slowing, and in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, child mortality is on the rise. The great bulk of the mortality decline since the 1970s is attributable to reduction in deaths.
