Developing sustainable international partnerships in child health and paediatric care.

One of the UK government's policy initiatives when taking office in 1997 concerned international development. This highlighted an intention to expand partnerships between institutions in the UK and poorer countries; specifically “to work closely with other donors and development agencies to build partnerships with developing countries”.1 The prime policy goal was to eliminate poverty and encourage economic growth that benefits the poor. Since children are a group most vulnerable to poverty, a specific intention was to support international efforts to “enhance children's well-being including through the provision of effective and sustainable health services”.1 This approach now features in documents from the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) with all four of its International Development Targets relating to child and maternal health (table1).2