Good Health And Well-Being - Why it matters?
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality. Major progress has been made on increasing access to clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the spread of HIV/AIDS. However, many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues.
What's the goal here?
To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Facts & figures
Child health
- 17,000 fewer children die each day than in 1990, but more than six million children still die before their fifth birthday each year
- Since 2000, measles vaccines have averted nearly 15.6 million deaths
- Despite determined global progress, an increasing proportion of child deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Four out of every five deaths of children under age five occur in these regions.
- Children born into poverty are almost twice as likely to die before the age of five as those from wealthier families.
- Children of educated mothers-even mothers with only primary schooling-are more likely to survive than children of mothers with no education.
Maternal health
- Maternal mortality has fallen by almost 50 per cent since 1990
- In Eastern Asia, Northern Africa and Southern Asia, maternal mortality has declined by around two-thirds
- But maternal mortality ratio - the proportion of mothers that do not survive childbirth compared to those who do - in developing regions is still 14 times higher than in the developed regions
- More women are receiving antenatal care. In developing regions, antenatal care increased from 65 per cent in 1990 to 83 per cent in 2012
- Only half of women in developing regions receive the recommended amount of health care they need
- Fewer teens are having children in most developing regions, but progress has slowed. The large increase in contraceptive use in the 1990s was not matched in the 2000s
- The need for family planning is slowly being met for more women, but demand is increasing at a rapid pace
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- At the end of 2014, there were 13.6 million people accessing antiretroviral therapy
- New HIV infections in 2013 were estimated at 2.1 million, which was 38 per cent lower than in 2001
- At the end of 2013, there were an estimated 35 million people living with HIV
- At the end of 2013, 240 000 children were newly infected with HIV
- New HIV infections among children have declined by 58 per cent since 2001
- Globally, adolescent girls and young women face gender-based inequalities, exclusion, discrimination and violence, which put them at increased risk of acquiring HIV
- HIV is the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age worldwide
- TB-related deaths in people living with HIV have fallen by 36% since 2004
- There were 250 000 new HIV infections among adolescents in 2013, two thirds of which were among adolescent girls
- AIDS is now the leading cause of death among adolescents (aged 10-19) in Africa and the second most common cause of death among adolescents globally
- In many settings, adolescent girls' right to privacy and bodily autonomy is not respected, as many report that their first sexual experience was forced
- As of 2013, 2.1 million adolescents were living with HIV
- Over 6.2 million malaria deaths have been averted between 2000 and 2015, primarily of children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. The global malaria incidence rate has fallen by an estimated 37 per cent and the mortality rates by 58 per cent
- Between 2000 and 2013, tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis and treatment interventions saved an estimated 37 million lives. The tuberculosis mortality rate fell by 45 per cent and the prevalence rate by 41 per cent between 1990 and 2013
Why?
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages is important to building prosperous societies.
However, despite great strides in improving people's health and well-being in recent years, inequalities in health care access still persist. More than six million children still die before their fifth birthday each year, and only half of all women in developing regions have access to the health care they need.
Epidemics like HIV/AIDS thrive where fear and discrimination limit people's ability to receive the services they need to live healthy and productive lives. Access to good health and well-being is a human right, and that is why the Sustainable Development Agenda offers a new chance to ensure that everyone can access the highest standards of health and health care -not just the wealthiest.
What progress have we made so far?
Major progress has been made in several areas, including in child and maternal health as well as in addressing HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Maternal mortality has fallen by almost 50 per cent since 1990; measles vaccines have averted nearly 15.6 million deaths since 2000; and 13.6 million people had access to antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2014.
We may have come a long way, but we still have a longer way to go. Real progress means achieving universal health coverage; making essential medicines and vaccines affordable; ensuring that women have full access to sexual and reproductive health care; and ending all preventable deaths of children.
How much will it cost to achieve these targets?
Ensuring healthy lives for all requires a strong commitment, but the benefits outweigh the cost. Healthy people are the foundation for healthy economies.
For example, if we spent $1 billion in expanding immunization coverage against influenza, pneumonia and other preventable diseases, we could save 1 million children's lives each year. In the past decade, improvements in health and health care led to a 24 per cent increase in income growth in some of the poorest countries.
The cost of inaction is greater-millions of children will continue to die from preventable diseases, women will die in pregnancy and childbirth, and health care costs will continue to plunge millions of people into poverty. Noncommunicable diseases alone will cost low- and middle-income countries more than $7 trillion in the next 15 years.
What can I do to help?
You can start by promoting and protecting your own health and the health of those around you, by making well-informed choices, practicing safe sex and vaccinating your children.
You can raise awareness in your community about the importance of good health, healthy lifestyles as well as people's right to quality health care services.
Take action through schools, clubs, teams and organizations to promote better health for all, especially for the most vulnerable such as women and children.
You can also hold your government, local leaders and other decision-makers accountable to their commitments to improve people's access to health and health care.
Where are volunteer projects that need my help?
International voluntary work plays a key role in delivering and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals as volunteering supports social, economic and environmental change. It is an important driver of civic engagement in the 21st century. If you want to do more than just join the conversation, Volunteer World provides the chance to become active and help reach the SDG Goal #03 Good Health And Well-Being. Click on the map to search for volunteer opportunities that help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal:
Discover related Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. As such, the 17 SDGs and its associated 169 targets do not stand alone, but are are interconnected. The key to success on one will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another. If you are interested in supporting a cause addressing to the goal Good Health And Well-Being, you might also be interested in the related goals Life Below Water, Sustainable Cities And Communities, Decent Work And Economic Growth, Reduced Inequalities, No Poverty and Life On Land.
Please visit the website of the United Nations to find out more about Goal #03 Good Health And Well-Being and other Sustainable Development Goals.
Source: United Nations