In just under 5 months' time, the aspiration for the next 15 years of development efforts will be signed off at the UN General Assembly in New York, USA. These Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are already at an advanced stage of drafting—17 ambitious goals and 169 targets (panel), which have been criticised even by the UN General Secretary for being too voluminous.1 Amid this multitude of outcomes, those pertaining to health are reduced from three Millennium Development Goals to one SDG. What does this mean for global health research?
Panel
Panel
Proposed Sustainable Development Goals
Goal 1
End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 2
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
Goal 3
Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
Goal 4
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Goal 5
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 6
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Goal 7
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all
Goal 8
Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all
Goal 9
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation
Goal 10
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Goal 11
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
Goal 12
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Goal 14
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development
Goal 15
Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels
Goal 17
Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
It means an opportunity. As we concern ourselves with the prominence of health in the new agenda, it's easy to forget that (human) development is by definition people-centred, and that living a long, healthy, and creative life is its cornerstone.2 The expansion of the new goals to encompass many (if not all3) of the enablers of an enriched life, for our generation and for those that follow, represents an opportunity to lift ourselves out of the silos we so decry and to embrace other disciplines that underlie the purpose of our own.
As the SDGs, in whatever final form they take, are unveiled in September, 2015, The Lancet and The Lancet Global Health will begin to curate a special issue on sustainable development, to be published in April, 2016. As part of this special issue, we seek original research articles that cross two or more of the key disciplines of the SDGs: poverty, nutrition, health, education, economics, gender equality, water and sanitation, energy, urban planning, conservation, and climate change. Multidisciplinary authorship is a must. The deadline is Sept 15, 2015, and submissions should be made online.
To submit to The Lancet go to http://ees.elsevier.com/thelancet
To submit to The Lancet Global Health go to http://ees.elsevier.com/langlh/
To submit to The Lancet go to http://ees.elsevier.com/thelancet
To submit to The Lancet Global Health go to http://ees.elsevier.com/langlh/
References
- Moon, B-K. The road to dignity by 2030: ending poverty, transforming all lives and protecting the planet. Synthesis report of the Secretary-General on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/700&Lang=E. ((accessed April 21, 2015).)
- UNDP. About human development: what is human development?.http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev. ((accessed April 21, 2015).)
- Horton, R. Offline: Why the Sustainable Development Goals will fail. Lancet. 2014; 383: 2196
No comments:
Post a Comment