Drowning is one of the leading causes of death among children globally, especially in Asia and Africa. The Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) supports governments to test and implement proven drowning prevention interventions at scale and works with local communities to create awareness and generate demand for services to achieve sustainable drowning prevention programs.
We work with governments to develop successful national drowning prevention programs, including survival swim training, water safety education and childcare centers. This includes:
Facilitating country ownership and handover from international donors, creating a sustainable solution.
Designing evidence-based pilot programs and evaluating and using the proven impacts to advocate that governments scale-up, fund and sustain the programs.
Building local capacity to educate the key stakeholders, the public and media about the problem of drowning, effective interventions and the need to fund them.
We also raise awareness of the global burden of drowning through work with journalists and emerging leaders around the world to better advocate for effective drowning prevention programs and policies to expand and strengthen drowning prevention expertise nationally and globally.
This work is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
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Every day
5 children under 15 years of age lose their lives to drowning in Vietnam.
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Our Impact
2022
The Government of Bangladesh approved a $32 million, three-year program to reduce drowning among children. The program includes taking over the management of 2,500 childcare centers that are proven to reduce drowning in children ages 1-5 and increasing the number to 8,000, to provide supervision to 200,000 children.
2025
The Government of Vietnam approved a National Program on Strengthening Child Drowning Prevention in the Educational System (2025–2035), which integrates survival swimming into the national school curriculum for all children, regardless of geography or socioeconomic status.
2026
The Government of Vietnam officially took ownership of the child drowning prevention program—a major milestone and a clear signal of long-term sustainability. The program has reduced child drowning deaths by 16% in intervention areas since 2018.
In Bangladesh, advocacy by GHAI and its partners ensured the sustainability of a community childcare program that reduced drowning deaths by 88% among children under four. The Bangladesh government took ownership of the program in 2022, approving a budget to expand it by threefold to support 8,000 community-based childcare centers and provide funds for survival swim lessons for 360,000 children 6-10 years old.
In Vietnam, GHAI partnered with the Government of Vietnam, the World Health Organization (WHO), CSOs and local experts to implement a world class survival swimming program that fundamentally transformed national child safety and reduced overall child drowning between 2018-2026. The program resulted in reduced child drowning deaths by 16% in intervention areas; 400,000+ children trained on life-saving swim skills; increased survival swimming rates from 14.7% to 46.4%; 1,500 instructors trained and $7.1M mobilized in local funding.
Program Videos
We believe in the transformative power of stories, which can humanize an issue, foster feelings of empathy and create strong emotional connections and understanding. We have captured authentic and compelling narratives of how drowning and drowning prevention efforts have impacted families, community members and policy leaders to bring awareness to this overlooked issue in Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Between 2018 and 2025, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, partnered with the Government of Vietnam to implement a World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended survival swimming program that fundamentally transformed national child safety and reduced overall child drowning.
Between 2018 and 2025, GHAI assisted the government and local partners to orchestrate a transformative, strategic communications campaign that helped to secure landmark national drowning prevention policies that now protect millions of Vietnamese children. Through innovative media partnerships, evidence-based storytelling and multi-level stakeholder engagement, we transformed awareness into action that changed behaviors, influenced policy and created lasting systems for continued impact.
In Vietnam, a groundbreaking partnership between the national government and international partners is on track to reduce the national drowning burden by 20%. By securing dedicated funding streams and pursuing innovative partnerships, two high-burden provinces have provided a blueprint for sustaining their drowning prevention programs.
