The Child Survival Revolution: a critique

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine what has come to be known as the Child Survival Revolution, a programme launched by UNICEF to promote growth monitoring, oral rehydration therapy (ORT), breast-feeding and immunizations in the Third World. These four health interventions have collectively come to be known as GOBI or GOBI-FF if one adds the provision of food and family planning services. Two (not necessary original) hypotheses will be explored here: firstly, the child survival revolution cannot work in isolation. It must be tied to other, more fundamental changes in political and economic power structures; secondly, the success of these interventions is inextricably tied to their acceptance and implementation at the grassroots level (a bottom-up versus a top-down approach).