LESSONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 40

agendas, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other international development agendas, such as those to reduce the impact of climate change and to reduce social and economic inequities (Box 1).

This is the first regional assessment on drowning prevention in the South-East Asia Region. As such, it represents an important first step towards understanding the burden and impact of drowning, progress made towards its prevention in the Region, and opportunities for sharing knowledge to inform further action to reduce drowning rates in the South-East Asia Region.

This report was developed through a national consultation process with Member States in WHO’s South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions (Fig. 2). Participation was voluntary and followed a similar methodology to previous WHO global status reports (e.g. the Global Road Safety Status Report 2018). In the SouthEast Asia Region, 10 out of 11 countries

BOX 1. Drowning prevention: a contributor towards global commitments

Drowning prevention has the ability to contribute to and advance progress towards several global commitments and agendas, including the 2030 United Nations SDGs, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (community resilience to climate change), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and universal health coverage. When considering the SDGs, drowning prevention interventions have the potential to contribute towards Goals 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 13. Drowning prevention efforts can support progress on early childhood targets linked to mortality, education, immunization and nutrition, and have the potential to be an innovative child survival intervention, protecting investment in child and adolescent development. This is particularly important in countries where drowning is a leading cause of child death.