Archive for: Sustainable Development Goals


The World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and is responsible for global monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to WASH. This report presents updated national, regional and global estimates for WASH in households for the period 2000-2017. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commits UN member states to take bold and transformative steps to ‘shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path’, ‘realize the human rights of all’, ‘end poverty in all its forms’, and ensure ‘no one will be left behind’. The UN General Assembly will conduct its first quadrennial review of progress in September 2019. This report assesses progress in reducing inequalities in household WASH services and identifies the populations most at risk of being ‘left behind’.

Year: 2019

Source: WHO | UNICEF

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    We identify three categories of challenges that have to be addressed to maintain and enhance human health in the face of increasingly harmful environmental trends. Firstly, conceptual and empathy failures (imagination challenges), such as an over-reliance on gross domestic product as a measure of human progress, the failure to account for future health and environmental harms over present day gains, and the disproportionate effect of those harms on the poor and those in developing nations. Secondly, knowledge failures (research and information challenges), such as failure to address social and environmental drivers of ill health, a historical scarcity of transdisciplinary research and funding, together with an unwillingness or inability to deal with uncertainty within decision making frameworks. Thirdly, implementation failures (governance challenges), such as how governments and institutions delay recognition and responses to threats, especially when faced with uncertainties, pooled common resources, and time lags between action and effect.

    Year: 2015

    Source: The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health

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      In this commentary, the authors explain how family planning can accelerate progress across the 5 SDG themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership and why it is critical to achieving the goals and the post-2015 development agenda. Empowering women to choose the number, timing, and spacing of their pregnancies is not only a matter of health and human rights but also touches on many multisectoral determinants vital to sustainable development, including women’s education and status in society. Without universal access to family planning and reproductive health, the impact and effectiveness of other interventions will be less, will cost more, and will take longer to achieve. Global strategies and partnerships—and health decision makers at all levels—must leverage the abundance of available research, evidence, and the range of justifications presented here to prioritize family planning as a foundational component of health, rights, and long-term development strategies.

      Year: 2016

      Source: Global Health: Science and Practice

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        The FP-SDGs Model is an evidence-based advocacy tool that projects medium- and long-term effects of three different family planning scenarios, capturing the significant impact that contraceptive use has on SDG achievement. The model can be applied in any country, and allows users to design multiple scenarios to show how investments in family planning, education, and the economy can accelerate progress toward the SDGs. By showcasing the benefits of contraceptive use related to health, society, and the economy, the model provides evidence that supports investments in family planning at national and subnational levels.

        Results from country-level applications of the model enable users to:

        • Make the case for family planning financial investments and policy and programmatic improvements
        • Mainstream family planning across development sectors

        Year: 2018

        Source: Health Policy Plus

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          Family planning is a cross-cutting intervention that can accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Kenya, family planning is a best buy that contributes to the nation’s growth and creates a path towards achieving the SDGs and Kenya’s Vision 2030. Developed in partnership with the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) and with generous support from USAID Kenya and East Africa through the Policy, Advocacy, and Communication Enhanced for Population and Reproductive Health (PACE) Project, PRB has created a short video that demonstrates how family planning contributes to Kenya’s progress across all five SDG themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships. The video will be shared with policymakers throughout Kenya to enhance their understanding of the importance of family planning to realizing the SDGs.

          Year: 2017

          Source: Population Reference Bureau

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            The world has committed, through the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to halt biodiversity loss and increase protected area (PA) coverage and to reduce multidimensional poverty by half by 2030. Recent calls to evaluate interactions between SDGs have highlighted that achieving one goal in isolation may actually have negative consequences for sustainable development foci of other goals. PAs are fundamental for biodiversity conservation, yet their impacts on nearby residents are contested. This study aimed to determine the impact that the expansion of the world’s PA network—a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation strategies—on the prospects of achieving global goals around poverty alleviation and human health.

            Year: 2019

            Source: Science Advances

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              In 2015, member states of the United Nations—including Mali—committed to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. Two of the SDGs are directly related to family planning and numerous others are impacted by family planning—evidence has shown that modern contraceptive use is linked to improved health outcomes, economic progress, educational attainment, and environmental protection. In Mali, HP+ used the FP-SDGs Model to quantify the benefits of accelerated contraceptive use to help make the case for increased domestic resources for family planning. The results show that if growth in modern contraceptive use is accelerated, progress toward achieving the SDGs would be dramatically boosted. This brief summarizes results and offers actions that stakeholders can consider to accelerate progress on family planning and the SDGs in Mali.

              Year: 2019

              Source: Health Policy Plus

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                Malawi’s Population Unit in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, with support from HP+, applied the Family Planning-Sustainable Development Goals Model to simulate the effects of increased investment in family planning on 13 health and non-health Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators by 2050. Results indicate that socioeconomic reforms combined with family planning investments provide the largest benefits. Malawi will be better positioned to achieve the SDGs if decision makers prioritize family planning in policies, programs, and funding across sectors. This brief summarizes model results and offers actions that stakeholders can consider to accelerate progress on family planning and the SDGs.

                Year: 2017

                Source: Health Policy Plus

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