Background: ensures everyone’s good health and well-being
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) highlights that good health is essential to sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda reflects the complexity and interconnectedness of the two.
The world is off-track to achieve the health-related SDGs. Progress has been uneven, both between and within countries. There’s a 31-year gap between the countries with the shortest and longest life expectancies. And while some countries have made impressive gains, national averages hide that many are being left behind. Multisectoral, rights-based and gender-sensitive approaches are essential to address inequalities and to build good health for all.
“Ensuring healthy lifestyles and promoting the well-being of people of all ages”, as one of the key objectives, is indeed extremely challenging. As we can see witness during COVID-19 pandemic, there is not only a heightened sense of crisis in the development of the health sector including both officially and in the private sector, but also difficulties in global health cooperation under strong geopolitical pressure.
How it interrelates with Other Goals
Citing SDG1- No Poverty as an example, poverty hinders public health’s development. Despite how the Universal health coverage (UHC) aims to ensure that everyone can access quality health services without facing financial hardship, and how efforts to combat infectious diseases like HIV, TB and malaria led to significant expansions in service coverage between 2000 and 2015, progress has since slowed. Inequalities continue to be a fundamental challenge for UHC. Coverage of reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health services tends to be higher among those who are richer, more educated, and living in urban areas, especially in low-income countries. As of the end of 2022, approximately 8.4% of the global population, or around 670 million people, were still living in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 per day. Hence, good public health service cannot be ensured and SDG3 cannot be achieved without SDG1.
SDG4- Quality Education also matters when it comes to SDG3 and public health. Prevention is better than cure; yet, if we do not understand disease transmission fully via receiving public health education and relevant science popularization, it is difficult for us to really prevent. Moreover, with reference to SDG3.7, by 2030, all countries should try their very best to 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, which involves in solid public health education efforts.
SDG3 also links with SDG6- Clean Water and Sanitation: In 2024, I had a SDGs-themed field trips in Tokyo, Kyoto, Tokushima and Kobe. Enormous current and forthcoming challenges, different Japanese companies’ effort and public responses are highlighted. For instance, I have visited UNIQLO, and many company representatives and Prof. Yuto Kitamura from the University of Tokyo introduced how clothes production has been polluting water severely in many developing countries, harming the health of the local people. Thus, companies such as UNIQLO are now highlighting the paramount importance in wastewater treatment support, promoting reused/recycled material, and introducing 100% sustainable cotton which brings almost no water pollution. Which shows that SDG12- Responsible Consumption and Production is also related to SDG3 too.
All in all, to achieve SDG3, we need to keep a close eye to the widening economic and social inequalities, rapid urbanization, threats to the climate and the environment, the continuing burden of HIV and other infectious diseases, and emerging challenges such as noncommunicable diseases. Clearly, Universal health coverage will be integral to achieving SDG 3, helps ending poverty and reducing inequalities.
The Potential Disasters of Failure in SDG3
We should be familiar with a lot of terrible health crisis which caused significant number of deaths in developing countries. Ironically, this happened in many developed countries/cities too.
To cite an example, Hong Kong is doubtlessly a well-developed international hub with a lot of talented healthcare workers and solid, renowned hospitals. Yet, during its third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of elderly were still found dead in local nursing homes due to high-population density, limited workers who look after the elderly, and limited application of disinfecting high-technologies. Hong Kong has also been facing severe public health issues such as limited physicians, expensive private health services, long-queue time for public health services, etc. Showing that SDG3 should be a common goal treasured by every individual.
Sometimes, problematic public health services might even trigger social movement, such as 2024 South Korean medical crisis. The South Korean government announced new government policies on significantly increasing the medical student quotas starting from February, 2024. Such a policy was strongly supported by more than 60% Korean residents, because they are concerned about how South Korea achieved the lowest birth rate in the world, has limited manpower when it comes to health service and thus many people are not able to receive timely treatment. Thus, many residents want to see more medical students. Yet, intern and resident doctors in South Korea work 36-hour shifts, in comparison to the United States where they work less than 24 hours, while some argue that cosmetic surgeon doctors have much better payment and work-life-balance which led to equality. Also, many physicians argued that the main challenge is indeed skewed distribution of doctors in South Korea. Thousands of residents and interns have since resigned, which has resulted in medical school professors working to cover for residents. This has forced non-urgent, less complicated patients to no longer be treated at tertiary care facilities, leading to concerns about large university hospitals running into financial trouble. The above mention facts reflect the complexity of the challenges when we discuss about SDG3 and SDG11- Sustainable Cities and Communities.
China’s Approach to Strengthen Global Health Cooperation
From 15th to 18th July 2024, the third Global Health Forum of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA)was hosted in Beijing to strengthen global health cooperation. Famous figures from renowned international organizations, such as WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan and the Eighth Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki Moon participated. Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) Keizo Takemi delivering speech there, while it is valuable to point out that the head of MHLW has not visited China for six years already, which means global health cooperation may sometimes overcomes geopolitical challenges.
BFA has always been committed to promoting the common development of Asia and the world, upholding SDG3, featuring concepts such as ‘Health Beyond Health’. The latest developments in the health industry, including bio-manufacturing, telemedicine, etc., were introduced. Participants enjoyed many discussions regarding SDG3-related concerns in different countries, such as rapid response to public health crises, countering aging population, promoting artificial intelligence-enabled health, and the development of biomedicine. For instance, Prof. Chak-sing Lau, Dean of the University of Hong Kong’s Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, delivered a keynote speech titled “Do we need more doctors in the Fourth Industrial Revolution?”. He emphasized the need for a broader societal involvement in the future healthcare industry, and suggested that medical students now to directly and indirectly participated in health-policy making, international research and cooperations, humanitarian aid project, etc., so as to prepare themselves well. He suggests help countering SDG3-related challenges, now and then.
Thailand’s remarkable contribution to Health and Wellbeing
SDG 3.D ( UN Targets and indicators for 2030 ) underlines that it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks, in order to a better global health. Zhang Jingning, a Chinese mainland public health scholar, has highlighted the importance of surveillance and early warning platforms when it comes to health and wellbeing. Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), which is responsible for disseminating information on disease outbreaks or public health emergencies in various countries, which also activating a comprehensive response to public health emergencies in a timely manner, is a valuable case to be studied by all of us. Another example is the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED), which was initiated by the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID) in 1994, has already been developed into one of the world’s largest outbreak reporting/warning systems. Since its inception, ProMED has been the first to report on major diseases such as SARS and Ebola, helping countries to adopt and polish effective epidemic prevention policies. Besides, ProMED also sends specialized teams to areas where outbreaks of infectious diseases are occurring to carry out on-site inspections and provide medical assistance.
It is worthy to point out that there are many public health information-exchange networks between countries, such as the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS), a network established by the U.S. Army in conjunction with its domestic and foreign military organizations.
Thailand, for example, since joining GOARN, its government always notify GOARN of any outbreaks of infectious diseases in the country so as to activate the corresponding deployment and send personnel to Thailand, carrying out on-site missions to assist the Epidemiological Surveillance and Response Division of the its Ministry of Health, the Thailand International Field Epidemiology Training Program, and other relevant organizations. Thailand also actively participates in ProMED and reports on zoonotic-related health emergencies in Thailand, such as the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (ProMED-MBDS), which is a collaborative effort that covers other countries that Mekong River flows through, strengthening regional health diplomacy.
The Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), which is the largest overseas medical research organization of the U.S. Department of Defense, is not unrelated to GEIS. The U.S. side has been assisting Thailand in dealing with local infectious diseases, such as AIDS, malaria, and dengue fever, and has provided a great deal of help, especially in the development of appropriate diagnostic and treatment tools and vaccines.
Thailand’s leadership in ASEAN 10+3, hence, should be seen as a result of its extensive experience and hard effort in public health diplomacy with a wide range of countries. Thailand’s contribution to SDG3 has not only laid the groundwork for Thailand to guide other ASEAN member states promoting win-win cooperation from a regional community perspective, but have also greatly increased Thailand’s soft power.
Conclusion
The World Health Organization has repeatedly stated that the world’s growing number of health challenges can no longer be solved only at the scientific and technological level, but require political negotiation, long-term preventive measures, and patient-centered solutions. Inevitably, to achieve SDG3, synergize is essential as it often involving a large number of stakeholders working together, and is related to every single one of us.
Author:
Li Charles Kwun Yu
Li Charles Kwun Yu
Director of Hong Kong Ethos Foundation
Organising Committee member of Global Health Forum of Boao Forum for Asia’s ‘Innovation Promoting Health – Asian Health Industry Forum: Hong Kong Perspective’ subforum.
PhD student of International Politics, Peking University
PRC’s National Scholarship Awardee
Chinese President of the CAMPUS Asia BESETOSING (Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo-Singapore) Alumni Association
Contact : https://www.scmp.com/author/li-charles-kwun-yu
Ricky Lam Chin Pong
Sustainability Development Officer of Earth Environmental Foundation
Research Assistant at Division of Environmental Ecology, School of Environment, Tsinghua University
Deputy Dean Assistant at College of Engineering, Peking University
Undergraduate student of Civil Engineering, University of Macau
Macau Silver Lotus Scholarship Awardee
Contact : https://www.linkedin.com/in/展邦-林-5b96b226b/?locale=en_US