Accelerating achievement of the sustainable development goals.

In September 2015, nearly 200 nations adopted the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a transformative, universal framework to address three interwoven dimensions of our global existence—people, planet, and prosperity. They are predicated on the notion that sustainability is not just an aspiration but a necessity. However, by substantially expanding on the scope and targets of their predecessors (the millennium development goals), the SDGs have set a high bar. To achieve them, we will need collective action to create new knowledge, share and broker knowledge, and implement insights through working with many sectors and diverse global health policy stakeholders. With this in mind, 60 global health policy think tanks from around the world met in Geneva in November 2015 to explore the role that think tanks and academic institutions have in implementing the SDGs. What will it take to achieve the SDGs related to health?