The number one killer of children under five in Africa is diarrhoea caused by lack of access to clean water & sanitation (Lancet, 2010). It is responsible for over 4,000 deaths in this age group globally per day. What better place to start my blog, which hopes to show the stats related to development in an interesting way through creative charts and graphs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) website contains data on infant & child (I&C) mortality by country as well as access to W&S facilities.
Question: Do higher levels of access to clean water and sanitation lead to lower child and infant mortality?
I wanted to use the data on the WHO website to create a chart that showed the answer to the question above. And thankfully, after analysing the data, it showed that access to WASH clearly results in lower infant & child mortality rates. Check out this chart:
This is a motion chart. On motion charts you can track up to four variables at once over time. The chart above shows the average relationship between Child Mortality and Access to Clean Water from 1990 to 2008 in selected Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Africa. The colour of the bubbles show the GDP per capita (the warmer the colour the higher the GDP per capita). Hans Rosling has created some fantastic examples of motion charts, my favorite being the one featured in the talk he gave about the spread of HIV globally.
The motion chart data I created is saved in a google doc that can be viewed here.
There are two motion charts in this google doc:
On to the charts - Let's look at the "Total" sheet first, as it gives a high level picture of the relationship. To set up the motion chart, just do the following:
You can now play around with the chart, look at the relationship between the C&I mortality rates and access to W&S over time.
It is also worth mentioning that as time goes by the GDP per Capita significantly increases. In fact, one could argue that once the child death rate drops below approximately 160 deaths per 10,000 (infant 100 per 10,000) the GDP per capita expands rapidly. Is there an argument here to say that increasing the access to W&S, which in turn will reduce the I&C mortality rates, will lead to an increases in the GDP per capita? I can see a "Freakeconomics" type argument here, however I'll leave that for another day.
If you would like to look at the individual countries in detail go to the Country sheet. Here I have the same motion chart as in the Total sheet, however this time it is broken down by country. The same trend is exhibited here by the majority of countries (Sierra Leone and Rwanda being the exceptions). In this chart it is evident that countries such as Madagascar, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Chad could potentially reduce their I&C mortality rates by increasing the access to clean W&S.
Delighted to finally get my first post up. I very much welcome thoughts and comments. Any issues using the motion charts? Are they useful? Recommendations for further analysis?
Slan go foill
Barry
The World Health Organization (WHO) website contains data on infant & child (I&C) mortality by country as well as access to W&S facilities.
Question: Do higher levels of access to clean water and sanitation lead to lower child and infant mortality?
I wanted to use the data on the WHO website to create a chart that showed the answer to the question above. And thankfully, after analysing the data, it showed that access to WASH clearly results in lower infant & child mortality rates. Check out this chart:
This is a motion chart. On motion charts you can track up to four variables at once over time. The chart above shows the average relationship between Child Mortality and Access to Clean Water from 1990 to 2008 in selected Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Africa. The colour of the bubbles show the GDP per capita (the warmer the colour the higher the GDP per capita). Hans Rosling has created some fantastic examples of motion charts, my favorite being the one featured in the talk he gave about the spread of HIV globally.
The motion chart data I created is saved in a google doc that can be viewed here.
There are two motion charts in this google doc:
- Total sheet - Shows the Child, Infant mortality rates, access to clean water, sanitation for the average of all the LDC countries I investigated
- Country sheet - Shows the Child, Infant mortality rates, access to clean water, sanitation for each of the LDC countries I investigated
| Burkina Faso | Lesotho | Mali | Senegal |
| Burundi | Liberia | Mozambique | Togo |
| Chad | Madagascar | Rwanda | Uganda |
| Eritrea | Malawi | Sierra Leone | Zambia |
On to the charts - Let's look at the "Total" sheet first, as it gives a high level picture of the relationship. To set up the motion chart, just do the following:
- Click on the Total sheet
- For the Y axis set the variable to "Child death per 10,000"
- For the X axis set the variable to "Water access %"
- Set the colour to "GDP per capita"
- Set the size to "Same Size"
- Press Play!
You can now play around with the chart, look at the relationship between the C&I mortality rates and access to W&S over time.
It is also worth mentioning that as time goes by the GDP per Capita significantly increases. In fact, one could argue that once the child death rate drops below approximately 160 deaths per 10,000 (infant 100 per 10,000) the GDP per capita expands rapidly. Is there an argument here to say that increasing the access to W&S, which in turn will reduce the I&C mortality rates, will lead to an increases in the GDP per capita? I can see a "Freakeconomics" type argument here, however I'll leave that for another day.
If you would like to look at the individual countries in detail go to the Country sheet. Here I have the same motion chart as in the Total sheet, however this time it is broken down by country. The same trend is exhibited here by the majority of countries (Sierra Leone and Rwanda being the exceptions). In this chart it is evident that countries such as Madagascar, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Chad could potentially reduce their I&C mortality rates by increasing the access to clean W&S.
Delighted to finally get my first post up. I very much welcome thoughts and comments. Any issues using the motion charts? Are they useful? Recommendations for further analysis?
Slan go foill
Barry
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