This paper reviews and describes the complexity of the causal relationships between children’s health and its environmental, social, and economic influences in LDCs using a causal loop diagram (CLD). LDCs are environmentally vulnerable facing depletion of natural resources, the effects of unsustainable urbanization, and the impacts of climate change, leaving them unable to safeguard their children’s lifetime health and wellbeing. Many communities in LDCs have very limited access to adequate sanitation, safe water, and clean cooking fuel.
Characterised by low incomes and low education levels, high proportions of the population practising subsistence living, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of economic diversity and resilience, LDCs face serious health, environmental, social, and economic challenges. The people who live in LDCs represent just 13% of the global population but 40% of its growth rate. Least developed countries (LDCs) are home to over a billion people throughout Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Caribbean.