Noor Medical and the SDGs
In September 2015 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York the 17 Sustainable development goals (SDGs) with their 169 targets were created in order to “shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path”.
The SDGs were developed as a follow up to the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and provide a universal agenda integrating and balancing the three pillars of sustainable development — economic, social and environmental sustainability.
The overarching aim of the SDGs is to transform the world by 2030 in sustainable way — providing targets for the eradication of poverty, hunger and gender inequality as well as goals relating to the a sustainable use of our planet’s resources (Sustainable Development Knowledge platform, 2018).
Every country, company and individual is urged to work towards a successful fulfillment of the SDGs.
At Noor Medical, with our goal of increasing humanity’s access to equitable healthcare, it was natural for us to view the SDGs as a guidebook for success. In the following, brief overviews of selected SDGs will be provided, along with ways that Noor Medical seeks to address their targets.
SDG 1 — No Poverty & SDG 3 — Good Health and Well-being
At Noor Medical we follow the vision to improve humanity’s access to equitable healthcare. Healthy individuals can work, own their own income and support their families. Via providing sterilization devices, specifically designed for rural regions that face grid disruptions or have no electricity at all, we enable the critical sterilization of medical instruments. Noor Medical thus ensures a reduction in postoperative infections due to the use of non-sterile medical equipment.
SDG 5 — Gender Equality
Noor Medical targets rural clinics that face challenges in medical instrument sterilization due to the lack of electricity. Though major surgeries do not frequently take place in these contexts, sterilized medical instruments are still extremely important for maternal health. Women that are about to give birth often do not have the possibility to travel long distances on bumpy roads to give birth in bigger hospitals in the cities, far away from their family. In order to prohibit the spread of infectious diseases such as Aids between mothers, newborns and other patients it is crucial to sterilize medical instruments such as scissors or tweezers properly. At Noor Medical, we believe that enabling the fair health care for women is crucial to achieving health equity improvements.
SDG 6 — Clean Water and Sanitation
Sanitation in regards to medical wastes is one area that Noor Medical hopes to have a big impact on. It is not only the equipment for treating patients that must be sterilized properly, but also the used medical equipment so that it cannot transfer infections. Enock, our engineer, explained in a recent interview that used medical material is often thrown into the public — which poses a particular risk for children. It is thus not only necessary to sterilize the medical instruments that are utilized but also equipment such as needles need to be disposed safely (e.g., by sterilizing them to rid them of bacteria before disposal).
SDG 7 — Affordable and Clean Energy & SDG 13 — Climate Action
Noor Medicals hybrid autoclave can function with the abundant and clean energy from the sun. To make our device more resilient, Noor Medicals autoclaves have a built in backup function to also operate with electricity or thermal energy. The hybrid design thus brings more flexibility and enables the continuous sterilization of medical instruments, on sunny as well as cloudy days. By using the free energy of the sun, users do not have to pay for electricity or oil to run their autoclaves and are independent from the national electricity grid with regards to sterilizing medical equipment.
SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth
Through the use of properly sterilized equipment both patients and employees are at a lower risk of infectious diseases, improving working conditions. Noor Medical released an article highlighting the economics of unsafe surgery which provides a more detailed analysis of the relationship between health and economic output. The key takeaway is that disease or injury impacts the ability of individuals to perform their usual day-to-day activities, with consequences proliferating from the individual level to households, communities and beyond.
SDG 10 — Reduced Inequalities
We at Noor Medical believe, that healthcare is a universal right. With our hybrid autoclave we have the vision to improve humanities access to equitable healthcare, reducing inequalities. We believe in a product that is adapted to the specific needs of rural health care clinics and are driven by the mission to specifically improve healthcare for vulnerable groups, including the impoverished, women and children.
SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals
Togetherness is one of our guiding principles. We believe that change cannot be accomplished alone. Noor Medical is continuously expanding its network and partnerships to reach as many health clinics in our operating context as possible. We believe in mutual learning processes and listen closely to the needs of those we serve. Noor Medical’s goal is to build a global network of rural health care clinics and share the knowledge gained from their different operating contexts with our partners, so that together we can improve our response to their needs.
If you would like to support us on our journey of positively impacting 20 Million people by 2025 please consider supporting us via our crowdfunding campaign.
To learn more about Noor Medical please visit our website: www.noor-med.com or follow us on facebook, linked in and twitter.
Reference:
Sustainable Development Knowledge platform, 2018. Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld [accessed on 20.06.2018]
