Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, all the countries in the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It sets out 17 Goals, which include 169 targets. These wide-ranging and ambitious Goals interconnect. Goal 3 is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. But it is also cross-cutting, so that progress in its implementation contributes to progress towards other Goals, and action on other Goals in turn contributes to attaining Goal 3. Most of the Goals also have some direct health targets. All of them have indicators by which progress can be measured.

What’s different about the Sustainable Development Goals

The 2030 Agenda and its Goals offer a comprehensive vision for sustainable development that:

• is global, rather than limited to “developing” countries as was the case with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
• is based on values such as equity and respect for human rights;
• relies on approaches such as sustainable financing, scientific research and innovation, and monitoring and evaluation;
• requires a new way of working, involving intersectoral action by multiple stakeholders;
• aims to strengthen health systems towards universal health coverage (UHC).

These novelties can be leveraged to benefit health. For example:

• Intersectoral action by multiple stakeholders helps place health in all sectors of policy-making, and combines the strengths of multiple stakeholders.
• Strengthening health systems to achieve UHC means that a comprehensive health system provides complete coverage with fully-staffed and well-managed health services, thus protecting users from financial risk.
• Respect for equity and human rights are enabling factors leading to better health for all, “leaving no one behind”, and to the empowerment of women.
• Sustainable financing means attracting new sources of funding, as well as emphasizing domestic financing, with alignment of financial flows to avoid duplication of health system functions.
• Scientific research and innovation should include a balance of research on medical, social and environmental determinants and solutions.
• Monitoring and evaluation require new technologies to manage large volumes of data, disaggregated to reach different groups, for tracking progress towards Goal 3 and all other health-related Goals.