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International child health has improved. Better healthcare strategies, like IMCI, have contributed implementing basic interventions: vaccinations, nutrition supplement, oral rehydration and antibiotics. But 11 million children still die every year before they turn five, most from infectious diseases and neonatal complications, over half associated with malnutrition. Conditions we could prevent and treat. One of UN's Millennium Development Goals is to reduce child mortality. However child health is more than mortality and morbidity indicators, it includes growth and development.

Of the global budget for health research, only 10% is spent on the disease burden of 90% of the world's population. Investments for international health research are lacking, hampering health for the poor. Effective vaccines against the world killers HIV, malaria and tuberculosis still do not exist. However, in order to understand the obstacles to implementing existing effective interventions, scaling up research for new drugs and vaccines must be accompanied by research in health systems, to understand the obstacles to implement existing effective interventions. The task demands political and private sector commitment.