**1. Introduction**

In terms of the well‐being of children, there are profound implications in the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s statement '*that in the last analysis child mortality rates are an indication of how well a nation meets the needs of its children*' [1]. Parents who relatively fail to meet the *needs* of their children can be described as 'neglecting'; can the same be said of nations?

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Poverty is the context in which child mortality rates (CMR) have been analysed in this chap‐ ter. Therefore, this study assesses the relationship between poverty and CMR in 71 countries from three world regions, the West, Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) and how successful they have been in reducing mortality rates over time relative and comparative to their region. There are, of course, many interrelated social policy factors that influence CMR reflecting dif‐ fering political priorities so included is a comparison of health and military expenditure to reflect what in fiscal terms are competitive concerns [1–5].

Bringing together markedly different socio‐economic regions has its problems, but it has been argued that in a globalised world the concept of developed and underdeveloped nations is redundant and countries should be seen along a continuum of socio‐economic development [6]. This juxtaposition of three regions provides a comparative perspective of what is hap‐ pening to children, in the context of poverty, within a regional perspective. Although the socio‐political and economic make up of these regions varies considerably, all 71 countries under review are signatory to the United Nations millennium goals aspiration of reducing under‐five CMR by 2% per annum [7, 8].

The importance of the poverty dimension originates from the seminal work of Wilkinson and Pickett who highlighted the significance of income inequality, a measure of relative poverty relevant to Western societies [4]. Income inequality is linked with a range of negative outcomes such as poorer employment, education, crime, housing and health outcomes as detailed in numerous Western 'clinical' studies [9–14]. International comparisons of CMR are problematic and more so when contrasting three world regions. However, as each nation is assessed, within its own region, against itself over time, it becomes is its own control, enabling us to judge how successful it has been in reducing CMR relative to its region [12–15].

In analysing mortality rates, it is easy to forget the emotional impact of the death of a child. This is epitomised in the lament of the octogenarian Elizabeth Barraclough who said '*I've lost a husband, mother and father, brothers and sisters but nothing, nothing is more bitter than losing a bairn*'. This would be true of any parent in any society in any region, so we also consider the impact that disproportionate levels of child mortality have upon societies. This is the first‐ever known comparative study of societies' responses to children in three world regions and draws upon a range of recent and new research specific to this chapter.
