Despite being responsible for at least 875 000 deaths and associated with up to 40% of deaths in children and adolescents, injuries and violence are underrecognized as threats to children and the resources available for analysis and prevention bear no relation to the size of the problem. Although much has been achieved in child injury prevention in many high income countries, most low and middle income countries have not yet recognized child injury as an issue and most have limited capacity to take preventive action.

As a first step towards improving child injury prevention at a global level, WHO and UNICEF cohosted an expert meeting in March 2005 to find out what needed to be done. Delegates strongly affirmed the need to take action at both the international and regional levels. There …