Strengthening Leadership and Evidence for Drowning Prevention
Photo credit: Nicholas Loh
According to the , drowning claims the lives of approximately 300,000 people around the world each year. Children and young people are among the most at risk—particularly those under the age of five, who account for nearly a quarter of all drowning deaths. This crisis underscores the need for coordinated international efforts to prevent drowning worldwide.
In April 2021, the UN adopted its on drowning prevention, linking it to global development and health priorities. Additionally, it designated July 25 as and appointed the WHO to lead coordinated efforts across sectors to prevent drowning, recognizing the imperative need for immediate action.
Long before this striking global recognition, efforts were already underway to confront the devastating toll of drowning. In 2012, the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) launched the Saving of Lives from Drowning (SoLiD) project. Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and conducted in partnership with the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), SoLiD aimed to reduce childhood drowning through community-based daycare centers (creches), as well as swimming and rescue training in high-risk areas of Bangladesh.
This research showed that community creches led to an 88% reduction in drowning risk among children under five. This intervention also proved cost-effective and enabled mothers to engage more in income-generating activities. Moreover, swimming and rescue training had a lasting impact, as 88% of individuals trained 10 or more years ago retained their survival swimming skills. In 2022, these interventions were incorporated into a national drowning prevention program in Bangladesh, with technical support from JH-IIRU, CIPRB, and Synergos.
In 2024, Bloomberg Philanthropies and JH-IIRU fortified their partnership to advance global drowning prevention through a diverse portfolio of strategic activities. As part of this collaboration, JH-IIRU is providing technical support to the Bloomberg Philanthropies Drowning Prevention Initiative, and the broader drowning prevention community. JH-IIRU is working closely with faculty at Makerere University in Uganda to support the establishment of the Center of Excellence for Injury Prevention. This center will serve as a hub for research, training, and technical assistance, and will play a critical role in supporting monitoring and evaluation efforts for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ drowning prevention initiatives in Uganda.
Further extending this regional impact, JH-IIRU, in collaboration with local stakeholders in Ghana, is also launching targeted interventions in Ghana to address the country’s high incidence of drowning. Partnering with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Life Partners Platform (LPP), and other national organizations, the initiative will focus on swim training for children, and an implementation-effectiveness study for lifeguarding at public beaches in Ghana. JH-IIRU will apply its systems-based public health expertise to assess program implementation, effectiveness, and sustainability. A combination of local data sources, community surveys, and emerging digital platforms will inform the evaluation, with the goal of generating actionable strategies to guide future scale-up and drowning prevention programs.
Complementing these initiatives, JH-IIRU is launching the first Global Drowning Prevention Leadership Institute (GDPLI) in August 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. The GDPLI is a capacity building program rooted in a systems-based public health approach, and it aims to strengthen leadership, policy implementation, and advocacy in drowning prevention, with a focus on real-world application and collaboration across sectors.
Participants will gain expertise in evidence-based interventions, strategic communication, and evaluation methods. The program will also feature a fellowship track designed to strengthen the capacity of drowning prevention professionals by supporting mentored projects that translate knowledge into effective practice.
The inaugural GDPLI will convene a diverse cohort of 30 participants from sectors including government, healthcare, media, academia, research, non-governmental and international organizations, and private industry. This multidisciplinary group will contribute to a wide range of perspectives and expertise, enabling meaningful cross-sector collaboration to advance effective drowning prevention strategies worldwide.
Drowning remains one of the most neglected public health threats—yet it is also one of the most preventable. The initiatives underway mark a decisive shift: from fragmented responses to coordinated, all-encompassing, data-driven strategies. These efforts are laying the foundation for lasting, large-scale impact.