Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made to achieve the goal to end, by 2030, preventable deaths of new-borns and children under five years of age, adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.

Global progress, which began prior to 2015, continues to be made on ending preventable newborn and child deaths, with significant support from the UK government. It is too early to quantify how much progress has been made since September 2015.

To accelerate progress and help to meet the Sustainable Development Goal targets the UK government supported the development of, and signed a commitment to, the updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent Health.

We continue to invest in improving health systems in our focal countries to ensure that mothers and newborns can receive better quality care at birth, so improving their chances of survival. We also invest in care for children under the age of 5, for example through the prevention and treatment of malaria and other childhood diseases.