News: Child mortality: millions of preventable deaths as aid cuts thwart progress, UN warns
BMJ 2026; 392 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s540 (Published 19 March 2026)
BMJ 2026;392:s540
Millions of children around the world are still dying from preventable causes, and progress on tackling this is being harmed by global aid cuts, United Nations (UN) leaders have warned.
A major UN report, Levels and Trends in Child Mortality, estimated that 4.9 million children globally died before their 5th birthday in 2024, including 2.3 million newborns.1
Most of these deaths could have been prevented with proven, low cost interventions and better access to healthcare, the report stated..
“The science is clear: targeted investments in primary healthcare, maternal and newborn health services, routine immunisation, nutrition programmes, and quality and timely data systems can save millions of lives.”
The report warned that shifts in the “global development financing landscape” are placing critical maternal, newborn, and child health programmes under growing pressure...
COMMENT (NPW): It can be argued that the failure to prevent child deaths is fundamentally a failure of knowledge translation: the failure to translate evidence into policy and practice. This is due to a weak global evidence ecosystem. https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa One of the three greatest weaknesses of the system is a profound lack of political and financial commitment. HIFA and CHIFA are working to increase the political commitment (see below). Meanwhile the financial commitment is being further eroded by US, UK and other severe cuts in development aid in recent months. The consequences are clear.
Note: On the issue of political commitment, there are now more than 400 organisations that officially endorse the HIFA vision of universal acces to reliable healthcare information, as well as the World Medical Assocation (representing the world's doctors) and the International Federation of Library Associations (representing the world's library and information professionals). In 2026 HIFA is working on a project, at the request of WHO, 'To support the development of a technical brief for the World Health Organization to accelerate progress towards universal access to reliable healthcare information'. We invite CHIFA members to also join HIFA as we take this forward. hifa.org/joinhifa
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org