In 2013, WHO/UNICEF published an Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD) aimed at reducing childhood mortality from pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases through integrated healthcare programmes. We welcome this action plan and call for research and development tools to be evolved to help deliver the expectations of GAPPD; pay tribute to the lifesaving work carried out in this context by organisations such as WHO, UNICEF, PATH and WaterAid, as well as public-private partnerships such as the GAVI Alliance.
Having regard to the Millennium Development Goal on reducing child mortality and the Parliamentary Assembly’s Resolution 1975 (2014) Stepping up action against global inequalities: Europe’s contribution to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) process, we call on the national delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly to urge their governments to implement and support the GAPPD with a view to ensuring that an integrated approach becomes the standard for international healthcare policy.