Far fewer babies are being born, and they're living longer

We live in exciting times. I am not talking about the advances of medicine, science and engineering. Nor the growth of the internet, the mobile phone or the fact that Africa is the world’s fastest growing market for the latter… I could go on.

I’m talking about the dramatic drops in child mortality, birth rates and death rates in the poorest countries. It’s a trend that appears to be accelerating, and it is expected that figures to be published in a few years will show an even more dramatic fall. Give thanks for all the energy and sweat that has been poured into the problem by local governments, by the Bush administration’s programme to fight AIDS and malaria, organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the global fund for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and countless small NGOs.

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