OPINION
Monday, October 13, 2015 9
Ushering in the Sustainable Development Goals
How Important is Health?
jerico espinas › staff writer
O
n September 25, the United Nations
affirmed the Sustainable Development
Goals (“SDGs”), a fifteen-year plan to
end poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. Officially titled “Transforming
our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development” and set to come into effect on 1 January
2016, the SDGs replace the Millennium Development
Goals (“MDGs”) that expire this year. Notably, the
SDGS form an expanded plan of action for
global development with a set of seventeen
goals and 169 targets, a substantial increase
from the MDG’s set of eight goals and twenty
targets.
There are many key differences in scope and
content between the SDGs and MDGs. Some
of these changes are from improvements in the field
of global development, with researchers and policymakers becoming more experienced after implementing both successful and unsuccessful strategies
to meet the MDGs. Others reflect an increased awareness of different global actors and interests, some
of which were ignored or inadequately addressed
when creating the MDGs. And still others reflect the
increasingly interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development, acknowledging that fields like
biology, environmental science, urban development,
ê Photo credit: itu.int
and engineering all play a role in creating sustainable
systems.
One important topic of interest in the field of global
development involves health. Since the International
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
enshrined “the enjoyment of the highest standards
of health” as a fundamental human right, health has
had a prominent feature in most global development
frameworks. In the MDGs, however, health played a
particularly prominent role. Three of the eight MDGs
“In the new SDGs, health is
addressed in one SDG out
of seventeen.”
focused specifically on health outcomes, which were
the MDGs to reduce child mortality (MDG 4), improve
maternal health (MDG5), and combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria, and other diseases (MDG 6). And some of
the other MDGs, such as the eradication of extreme
poverty and hunger, the achievement of universal primary education, and the promotion of gender
equality and empowerment of women, can improve
population health by affecting important social
determinants of health.
In the new SDGs, health is addressed in one SDG
out of seventeen. Importantly, the third SDG, which
is to “ensure health lives and promote well-being for
all at all ages,” has thirteen key targets that create
a more comprehensive framework for addressing
health. Some of these are updates on previous goals
regarding maternal and child health as well as certain infectious diseases. But they also include entirely
new targets to strengthen the treatment of substance abuse, to promote mental health and wellbeing to tackle certain non-communicable diseases, to
address illnesses from hazardous environmental
pollution, and others.
What is important to consider, however, is
whether health will be adequately prioritized
in the new SDG framework, especially since
important MDG health targets were met in part
because of concerted global efforts to address
these issues. To focus on just MDG 4, the global underfive mortality rate dropped from ninety to forty-three
deaths per 1000 live births between 1990 and 2015,
and the total number of under-five deaths declined
from 12.7 million to almost 6 million since 1990.
These are great improvement to child mortality, and
they are a result of focused and specific projects. One
notable example is the Muskoka Initiative, which was
» see DEVELOPMENT GOALS, page 17