Child Drowning

5.3 STIMULATING AND SUSTAINING INVESTMENT IN DROWNING PREVENTION
While the newly available evidence on drowning has spurred prevention activities in each of the
countries surveyed, it is clear that LMICs cannot effectively address the issue on their own. Just as global
health partnerships have informed the child health and development communities in areas such as
malaria, immunizations and tuberculosis, drowning prevention advocates can and should utilize global
health partnership models to initiate action at regional or global levels to support efforts being
undertaken in LMICs with high drowning rates.
As an example, global efforts to eradicate malaria have taken many forms in the last four decades. A
review of limitations of the first attempts resulted in a more recent approach, Roll Back Malaria, which
is based on progressive scale-up of a package of interventions, global partnerships and national action
plans. Drowning prevention advocates may take lessons from the GAVI Alliance approach to publicprivate
sector partnerships, governance and attracting investment from governments and
philanthropists, or from the focus of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, on raising
funds, coordinating donors and monitoring results.
Partnership models in other sectors including disaster risk reduction, water and sanitation and rural
development also reinforce the need for coordinated planning by drowning prevention advocates. The
collaborative plans in these sectors may be particularly relevant to drowning prevention given the
overlapping constituents in LMIC’s. For example, many of the communities with high rates of drowning
in Bangladesh rely heavily on rural agriculture and are vulnerable to disasters such as severe flooding
and coastal inundation.
While starting from a low base of support, drowning prevention is not without global or regional
advocates. The International Life Saving Federation (ILSF) is made up of national lifesaving and drowning
prevention bodies and collaborative partners across all regions. Its mission is to act as the world
authority on drowning prevention, lifesaving and lifesaving sport, and among many initiatives convenes
a bi-annual global conference on drowning prevention.
Influenced heavily by the findings of the first UNICEF-TASC special series of working papers on child
injury published in 2007, the World Conference on Drowning Prevention was held in May 2011 in
Danang, Viet Nam. At this event, a diverse cross-section of stakeholders, including representatives from
UN agencies, international and national lifesaving federations, regional governments and the research
sector convened to address the issue of drowning prevention at global, regional and national levels. A
key outcome of the event was the initiation a global platform to reduce drowning.
5.4 MANAGING THE SHIFT FROM SCARCE FUNDS TO WELL-TARGETED, COORDINATED INVESTMENTS
The Global Platform to Reduce Drowning seeks to establish a dialogue among high-level stakeholders
with an interest in elevating drowning as a public health issue worldwide. With growing awareness,
consensus and concern about the need to act to prevent drowning, the stakeholders represented at the
ILS World Conference on Drowning Prevention 2011 called for well-targeted and coordinated
investments, and the need to capitalize on momentum being generated for drowning prevention efforts
in Asia. The results of their efforts, the Global Platform to Reduce Drowning, aims to provide a vehicle
for lifesaving organizations, multilaterals, national governments and partners across the drowning
prevention and development sectors to explore multisectoral collaboration. The principles outlined in
the Platform are as follows:
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