Dr Joanna Nurse, Head of Health and Education for the Commonwealth Secretariat, outlines the main health issues in the Sustainable Development Goals, and looks forward to the 2017 Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting.
Health is a valuable component of the wider work of the Commonwealth, promoting the well-being of the population to take forward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contributing to population resilience and security. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2015 Communiqué affirmed that: “Heads recognised the importance of tackling communicable and non-communicable diseases, including malaria”.
They underlined the importance of routine immunisation programmes. Heads reaffirmed their commitment towards making the complete eradication of polio a global priority. They called on the Commonwealth at large to support the strengthening of policies for universal health coverage in order to build strong and resilient health systems that will, in turn, enable better responses to public health threats and emergencies, as well as to address the increasing burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Heads also called for continued promotion of collaborative research into communicable and non-communicable diseases, as well as collective Commonwealth action to advocate for global health security and the reduction of all public health threats, including the global imperative of addressing antimicrobial resistance.”
Universal Health Coverage
The renewed drive by the international community to achieve universal access to healthcare, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), has led to increased recognition that health protection is an integral part of providing quality healthcare to populations…
Dr Joanna Nurse
Head of Health and Education for the Commonwealth Secretariat
