UNICEF recently published a report showing that child mortality has decreased worldwide. Ten thousand fewer children under the age of 5 are dying each day than in 1990, reported the organization’s executive director.

This sounds like a really positive step for the world’s children. According to UNICEF, countries such as Malawi, Bolivia, Eritrea, Laos, Nepal, Bangladesh and Mongolia have made progress in reducing the child mortality rate. But the problem is that many other countries haven’t made progress at all. For example, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India are doing badly, sharing 40 percent of the world’s child mortality.

Both UNICEF and the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs agree that the decrease in deaths is too slow and too sparse, according to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals 2008 report and BBC. Tragically, more than eight million children still die every single year.

Diseases such pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria cause death among children, but really, children die of poverty. Their families and communities don’t have the resources needed to prevent preventable diseases or to treat treatable ones.

One insecticide-treated bed net, which costs only $10, can protect a family, of parents and children, from mosquitoes that carry malaria for about four years. It sounds cheap, but in sub-Saharan Africa, where large percentages of the population may live on about $1 per day, families can’t afford bed nets. Vaccinations, vitamin supplements and proper sanitation are other examples of relatively inexpensive and very effective health investments that should be made around the world.

The U.S. must lead the international community in committing to more foreign aid for developing countries — and following through on those commitments.

Much more funding is needed for our international health and development programs if we want to truly improve the lives of people around the world and reduce the death among children. Economist and director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, Jeffrey Sachs, points out, it’s ridiculous that of every $100 of national income earned, we send only 5 cents to Africa, the continent most in need of our assistance.

As members of an interconnected earth, we have a moral obligation to take care of people who are not yet able to take care of themselves.

America, a country devoted to freedom and opportunity, has a chance to look across the ocean and provide all people with the means to share in those ideals.

In 1990, the world set eight goals to eradicate world poverty and suffering by the year 2015. The Millennium Development Goals was signed by 189 U.N. countries. The goals include a two-thirds reduction in death among children under the age of 5.

As U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has observed, “We have made important progress towards all eight goals, but we are not on track to fulfill our commitments.” Today, our world is one of exciting innovation and advancement. But if we can’t meet the basic needs of the world’s people, what have we really achieved?

Reach Hannah at hannah.wasserman@asu.edu.