HFM Oct-Dec 2015 Health as a Development Goal for 2030: Advancing Health Promotion, Policy Action, and System Reforms in Public Health

Theme – Health Promotion / Non-Communicable Diseases

On 25 September 2015, history was created at the UN General Assembly in New York. All 190 countries came together to sign a unanimous declaration to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 which will now become an important landmark year for human development. After tortuous negotiations for the last three years after the Rio +20 Summit of 2012, countries around the world could achieve a rare degree of unanimity in setting an agenda for human advancement for the next 15 years. Starting with eradication of poverty in all its forms as an outstanding priority, the agenda for 2030 is built on the three pillars of economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. The basic principles that ‘no one should be left behind ‘and ‘gender equality should be overarching’ have been closely followed in defining the 17 SDGs and about 170 targets as various sub goals. No other agenda in recent history has been able to rally so many countries into affirmative action for overall development of humanity.