About 472,000 Ethiopian children die each year before their fifth birthday, which places Ethiopia sixth among the countries of the world
in terms of the absolute number of child deaths. Yet, there are effective low cost interventions to prevent two-thirds of these deaths.
Following high-level discussions with the Global Child Survival Partnership, the Federal Ministry of Health and its partners organised a National Child Survival Conference from 22-24 April 2004. The conference recommended that a National Strategy and Plan of Action for
the reduction of child mortality should be prepared. The Ministry of Health has now prepared this strategy in partnership with WHO, UNICEF, USAID, World Bank and CIDA.