those factors include mother s age urbanrural residence and key characteristics of the child such as sex birth order length of previous birth interval therefore health policies that focus on reducing inequalities as proposed by the united nations children fund unicef seem more likely to yield large returns on the investments being made by countries averting more child and maternal deaths than policies focused on improving overall levels of health and mortality without attention to the role of inequalities while it is important to invest globally in maternal adolescent and child health every woman every child it is critical that these efforts target the most economically vulnerable children and their families