I don't think in re: Africa the issue is one of education or health awareness, but more the question of where children rank, culturally. We're pretty children-centric, all overpopulation aware and trying to get the infant mortality rate down more than it already is.
Not my area of limited-enough-to-bullshit awareness, but I read
Dancing Skeltons once. What I got was: the poor health of developing children was due largely to the fact that their nutrition was considered after that of others.
Flip the coin around: if children should be seen and not heard, would a child not developing verbal skills be noticed?