**5. Conclusions**

Child drowning is a significant public health concern in the Philippines and a leading cause of child mortality. While there is a slight downward trend seen in the data on child drowning in the Philippines, there is much more to be done. The development of a multisector action plan on drowning prevention aims to guide all-age drowning prevention in the Philippines and includes several activities specifically targeting children. These activities, and work done to prevent drowning more generally, must consider upstream actions that take into consideration the determinants of health such as the role of education, the risks posed by urbanization, the importance of WASH, and safe water transportation. Children from high-risk groups such as low socio-economic families, rurally dwelling families, and ethnic minorities must be of specific focus. Enhancement of the national injury surveillance system, which includes drowning, is vital and should guide future research and implementation and evaluation of child drowning prevention strategies. It is hoped that the identification of and work to address these determinants will reduce drowning risk among children, and also the general population, and, therefore, save lives.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.P.G., A.E.P. and R.CF.; methodology, J.P.G., A.E.P. and R.CF.; validation, A.E.P., R.CF., J.P.G., L.L.C., M.R.S.Z.U., J.J.R.M., J.J.L.G., R.E.C.M., L.L.O. and L.L.C.; formal analysis, A.E.P., R.CF. and J.P.G.; writing—original draft preparation, J.P.G., A.E.P. and R.CF.; writing—review and editing, A.E.P., R.CF., J.P.G., L.L.C., M.R.S.Z.U., J.J.R.M., J.J.L.G., L.L.O. and R.E.C.M.; visualization, A.E.P.; supervision, R.CF.; funding acquisition, J.P.G., L.L.O. and L.L.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The "Development of the Multisector Action Plan on Drowning Prevention in the Philippines, 2016–2026" was supported by the World Health Organization. Project Title: Technical Assistance on Developing National Multisectoral Strategy on Drowning Prevention, WHO Registration: 2015/585544-0.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Ethical review and approval were waived for this study due to the use of publicly accessible, de-identified drowning data and the process of developing the multisector action plan on drowning being deemed to not require institutional ethics board approval.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Drowning data explored in this study is accessible via the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Compare Data Viz Hub https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to acknowledge the representatives of various governmen<sup>t</sup> and non-governmen<sup>t</sup> organizations that contributed in developing the Multisector Action Plan on Drowning Prevention in the Philippines, 2016–2026.

**Conflicts of Interest:** J.J.L.G. and R.E.C.M. are employed by the WHO in the Philippines. The WHO funded the multisector action plan on drowning prevention project. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.
