Urging governments to tackle preventable deaths, charity Save the Children said in a report out on Tuesday that a million newborn babies a year die within 24 hours, Agence France-Presse reported.
Another 6.6 million children around the world died in 2012 before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes, the report by the British-based organization said.
Since 1990, the number has almost halved from 12.6 million, However, there remains a "deplorable problem of lack of attention to babies in their first days of life", the aid organization said.
In its report, entitled "Ending Newborn Deaths", it said one million babies did not survive their first 24 hours of life in 2012, according to AFP.
If preventable newborn mortality was ended, it is said that two million babies could be saved each year.
"Child mortality remains one of the great shames of our modern world. Every day, 18,000 children under five die, and most from preventable causes," the report said.
"Unless we urgently start to tackle deaths among newborn babies, there is a real danger that progress in reducing child deaths could stall and we will fail in our ambition to be the generation that can end all preventable child deaths."
Immunization, family planning, better nutrition and treatment of childhood illnesses, as well as improving economies have been prominent in reducing the number of deaths since 1990, the report said.
According to AFP, Pakistan had the highest rate of first day deaths and stillbirths at 40.7 per 1,000 births, followed by Nigeria (32.7), Sierra Leone (30.8), Somalia (29.7), Guinea-Bissau (29.4) and Afghanistan (29.0).
A skilled heath worker was present at birth for fewer than half of the women in Pakistan.
Attempts to improve this have been dogged by "delays in the salary disbursements, 'stock-outs' of medicines, unavailable and dysfunctional equipment, and an unhelpful referral system", the report said.
A quarter of the 2.2 million lives lost have been from India. The country scores the highest number of first day deaths and stillbirths at 598,038 per year.
Since 1990, the under-five mortality rate in India has been more than halved, from 126 per 1,000 live births to 56.1, AFP reported.
"(Indian) states with strong health systems and implementation mechanisms have done exceedingly well compared with others," the report said.
In order to get commitment to end preventable newborn deaths, world leaders, philanthropists, and the private sector were called on by Save the Children, which operates in more than 120 countries.
They said they would present their action plan to government ministers and are seeking for governments to issue declarations on ending preventable newborn mortality.
By 2025, Save the Children wants the governments to ensure that every birth is attended by trained and equipped health workers, and user fees for maternal and newborn health services are removed.
They demanded a commitment to spending at least $60 per capita on training maternity workers and urged pharmaceutical companies to increase the availability of products for the poorest of new mothers, AFP reported.
"In many cases, small but crucial interventions can save lives in danger. Skilled care during labor could reduce the number of stillbirths during labor by 45 percent and prevent 43 percent of newborn deaths," the report said.
