Child Health: A fair start in life >> Benefits of universal health coverage The projected social and economic returns on this investment – in terms of productivity, increased output and wider benefits associated with improved 93 health – are also impressive, totalling nine times the cost. other projected returns on investments in ending child and maternal mortality include: • at least a 10-fold return on health and nutrition spending through better 94 educational attainment, workforce participation and social contributions. • returns of US$16 for every US$1 invested in immunization. even with the introduction of new, more costly vaccines, immunization remains one of the 95 most cost-effective buys in health planning. 96 • returns of US$16 for every US$1 invested in nutrition interventions. Child undernutrition can cost between 1.9 per cent (egypt) and 16.5 (ethiopia) per 97 cent of a country’s GdP. Nang Doy and her • Savings totalling US$302 billion annually through protection, promotion and 98 four-month-old child, Thao support for breastfeeding. Nga, sit for growth monitoring vaccinations administered by The spending identified by the Global investment framework would address the the District Mother and Child problem of insufficiently resourced health systems that provide low coverage outreach team, in Lao People's of cost-effective interventions. More than US$10 billion of the additional annual Democratic Republic. cost would support enhanced delivery of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health care – including provision of an additional 544,000 community health workers and 675,000 nurses, doctors and midwives.99 © UNICEF/UNI76591/Holmes The STaTe of The World’S Children 2016 28