Aims to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.
Let's learn a little more about SDG 3.
13
Targets
5
Campaigns
3928
Pledges
4358
Actions Taken
13
Reading Material
7
Quiz
Health is a universal basic right and affects one’s ability to lead a happy, fulfilling life. Denial of access to basic health care can have far reaching consequences. Further, without healthy people, the goal of a peaceful and sustainable society cannot be realized. Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being is important to building prosperous societies. Healthy people are the foundation for healthy economies.
Progress has been made in some areas such as reducing the child and maternal mortality rate and the spread of communicable diseases. For example, the World Health Organization announced in August 2020 that Africa is now free from wild poliovirus, leaving just two countries where the disease remains, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, many areas are still lagging behind and healthcare disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic could reverse decades of improvement.
Health is not merely the absence of illness. In the words of Soka Gakkai International President Daisaku Ikeda, who shares: “Health is not simply the absence of illness. Real health is the will to overcome every form of adversity and use even the worst of circumstances as a springboard for new growth and development. Simply put, the essence of health is the constant renewal and rejuvenation of life.”
Even if people are not afflicted with an illness of the body, they may be struggling with an illness of the mind. And if they have overcome the illness of the mind as well, then the most important question to focus on is - how many people are leading value creating life each day to help and support others to lead a life of happiness and well being? This is the underlying spirit of SDG 3 - to leave no one behind - to build good health and develop a state of well being not just for oneself, but for many others as well.
In 2018 an estimated 6.2 million children and adolescents under the age of 15 years died, mostly from preventable causes. Of these deaths, 5.3 million occurred in the first 5 years, with almost half of these in the first month of life.
Over 40 percent of all countries have fewer than 10 medical doctors per 10,000 people; over 55 per cent of countries have fewer than 40 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 people.
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 in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 15 times more likely to die before the age of 5 than children in high income countries.
Malnourished children, particularly those with severe acute malnutrition, have a higher risk of death from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45 percent of deaths in children under-5 years of age.
In Eastern Asia, Northern Africa and Southern Asia, maternal mortality has declined by around two-thirds.
Every day in 2017, approximately 810 women died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
94 percent of all maternal deaths occur in low and lower middle-income countries.
Young adolescents (ages 10-14) face a higher risk of complications and death as a result of pregnancy than other women.
But the 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.
38 million people globally were living with HIV in 2019.
25.4 million people were accessing antiretroviral therapy in 2019.
1.7 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2019.
690 000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2019.
75.7 million people have become infected with HIV since the start of the epidemic.
32.7 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic.
Tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, accounting for around one in three AIDS-related deaths.
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.
By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births.
By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.
By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.
By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.
Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol.
By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents.
By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes.
Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination.
Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate.
Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and noncommunicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all.
Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States.
Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks.
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