Public health round-up

World leaders are set to adopt new sustainable development goals this month that aim to eradicate extreme poverty, promote prosperity and people’s wellbeing, while protecting the environment, by 2030. More than 150 world leaders are expected to attend the Sustainable Development Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 25 to 27 September. Entitled “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, the final draft document outlines 17 goals comprising 169 targets and indicators. Goal 3 focusses on health and comprises 13 targets, including ones on maternal and child health, communicable and noncommunicable diseases as well as universal health coverage and financing of health services in general. The new sustainable development agenda builds on the eight Millennium Development Goals that helped more than 700 million people to escape poverty over the past 15 years and tackled hunger, disease, gender inequality, access to water and sanitation by 2015. “This is the people’s agenda, a plan of action for ending poverty in all its dimensions, irreversibly, everywhere, and leaving no one behind,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, welcoming the final draft document. https://sustainabledevelopment. un.org/index.html