A UN campaign has helped reduce mother and child death rates in 49 of the world's poorest countries between 2010 and 2013.
Since the UN launched its Every Women Every Child campaign in 2010 in an effort to improve the health of women and children around the world, the organisation has raised $US60 billion ($A79 billion, the UN said.
Of the total, $US36 billion have already been spent, helping to avert the death of some 2.4 million women and children and improving the health of millions of others around the world, it said.
"The world is currently reducing under-five and maternal deaths faster than at any time in history," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.
"If we keep up the momentum, we have a historical opportunity to eliminate preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths."
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Topping the list was Afghanistan, where the maternal mortality rate fell by 20 per cent in the period.
Bangladesh saw the sharpest decline in child deaths to 16.3 per cent.
However, despite the improvement in health of millions, more than 17,000 children under five died daily in the world in 2013.
The daily toll brought the total number of children deaths that year to 6.3 million, including 2.8 million children who died in the first 28 days of life, the UN report said.
"Stillbirths - an estimated 2.6 million per year - remain an untouched issue, despite being largely preventable," it said.
