Contributing to the SDGs across research, teaching, engagement and operations activities

Dr Julian Skyrme and Dr Jennifer O’Brien, Directors of Social Responsibility, University of Manchester

This presentation was made for European Public Health Week by The University of Manchester’s Master of Public Health programme in partnership with the Urban Public Health section of the European Public Health Association.

To access the Antimicrobial Resistance open access course described in Dr O’Brien’s talk, Antibiotics and You: An introduction to antibiotic resistant infections, click here.

Resources

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Join the Urban Public Health section of the European Public Health Association here.

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European Public Health Week

This presentation took place on Monday 11th May 2020, and the theme for the day was “Promoting health through the Global Goals”.

Health and wellbeing can be improved through action targeting all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, also referred to as SDGs or Global Goals. Global health and wellbeing begin with local action — everywhere and in all ages. How are you promoting these Goals in your community (workplace, municipality, school, government, home, neighbourhood, etc)?

Key messages

1. Achieving the Global Goals in the COVID-19 pandemic context requires strengthening health systems, building and protecting a competent health workforce, ensuring supply and access to quality medicines and technologies needed for COVID-19, but also for ensuring continuity of essential health care services so that no one is left behind. This is how we can best be prepared for emergencies.

2. 2020 begins a decade of action to deliver the Global Goals. It demands urgent and ambition action from everyone: youth, older populations, civil society, media, private sector, unions, academia and other stakeholders, all pushing for the transformation needed.

3. Health and wellbeing for all (SDG 3) is only possible if health care is accessible for all, health systems are strong and resilient, and include robust population-level prevention pillars.

4. Health is an essential ingredient to advance the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals — our shared vision to end poverty, rescue the planet and build a peaceful world.

5. Environment and living spaces are considered as global, social and political entities that determine the health status of populations.

Other facts and figures

On 25 September 2015, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all member states of the UN (193 countries). These goals aspire to ‘leave no one behind’ and comprise 17 goals to be achieved by 2030.

One of the goals (SDG 3) is dedicated to health i.e. ‘ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages’. This goal is measured by indicators focused on risk factors and non-communicable and communicable outcomes such as ‘end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, and combat hepatitis and other communicable diseases’.

The 17 Global Goals are: no poverty; zero hunger; good health and wellbeing; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace and justice; and partnerships for the Goals.

An examination of the health-related SDGs indicators shows that in the European region the following indicators are progressing the slowest: smoking prevalence, alcohol abuse, suicide mortality, and child overweight.

According to the WHO, over 3.2 million deaths are caused by insufficient physical activity, which is a risk factor for several non-communicable diseases. Promoting physical activity could reduce cases and deaths from ischaemic heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, colon and breast cancer.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a threat to global health that affects all countries, rich or poor. AMR already causes approximately 700,000 deaths each year, and the figure could rise to 10 million by 2050, costing US$ 100 trillion to the global economy by then. It is no wonder therefore that the World Health Organization (WHO) has named AMR as one of the ten threats to global health in 2019.

The European region is not spared and unless antimicrobial resistance is tackled rapidly, it will likely become one of the top causes of deaths, globally and in Europe.

During the COVID-19 response it is more important than ever that we do not increase pressure on health systems by neglecting key public health areas such as prevention of disease (through vaccinations and promoting healthy lifestyles), maintaining the continuity of essential health care and public health services, support social protection of the most vulnerable, promote healthy communities, and keep our eye on global threats such as communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance, to name a few.

Further Resources

‘COVID-19 affecting all SDGs’, in ‘Shared responsibility, global solidarity’ by the United Nations (page 12): https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_report_socio- economic_impact_of_covid19.pdf

EUPHA statement on health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the European Region: https://eupha.org/repository/advocacy/EUPHA_statement_on_health- related_SDGs.pdf

Check your country’s progress towards the health-related SDGs: https://vizhub.healthdata.org/sdg/

Health in the SDG era: https://www.who.int/topics/sustainable-development- goals/test/sdg-banner.jpg

Urban design and health e-collection (European Journal of Public Health): https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/pages/urban_design_and_health

Good Life Goals: What you can do to reach the Goals (video): https://www.goodlifegoals.org/

SDG Acceleration Actions: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgactions

The Global Goals World Cup: https://ggwcup.com/

E-collection — Fighting antimicrobial resistance: actions taken across Europe (European Journal of Public Health): https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/pages/antimicrobial_resistance