Linking economic development and infant mortality in Africa

That’s not the most popular headline for this story, but it’s what I think of when I see this graph, sourced from the World Bank via the Economist, detailing falling child mortality rates in the past five years across a range of African countries:

Is it any coincidence that Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda and Rwanda are have averaged annual GDP growth of more than 6.5% over this same time period?

Here’s another interesting data point: the top two, Senegal and Rwanda, now have child mortality rates equal to India, which took 25 years to achieve its current level.

Original article here.