Health in the sustainable development goals: ready for a paradigm shift?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) galvanized attention, resources and accountability on a small number of health concerns of low- and middle-income countries with unprecedented results. The international community is presently developing a set of Sustainable Development Goals as the successor framework to the MDGs. This review examines the evidence base for the current health-related proposals in relation to disease burden and the technical and political feasibility of interventions to achieve the targets. In contrast to the MDGs, the proposed health agenda aspires to be universally applicable to all countries and is appropriately broad in encompassing both communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as emerging burdens from, among other things, road traffic accidents and pollution.We argue that success in realizing the agenda requires a paradigm shift in the way we address global health to surmount five challenges: 1) ensuring leadership for intersectoral coherence and coordination on the structural (including social, economic, political and legal) drivers of health; 2) shifting the focus from treatment to prevention through locally-led, politically-smart approaches to a far broader agenda; 3) identifying effective means to tackle the commercial determinants of ill-health; 4) further integrating rights-based approaches; and 5) enhancing civic engagement and ensuring accountability. We are concerned that neither the international community nor the global health community truly appreciates the extent of the shift required to implement this health agenda which is a critical determinant of sustainable development

The socio-economic base of communities in the NRMP area (Zimbabwe)

A research report on natural resource management in Zimbabwe.This report presents and discusses some of the socioeconomic information collected in the 1991 survey of households done by the Centre for the Natural Resources Management Programme. The NRMP involves areas in the Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North Provinces of Zimbabwe. It is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (project number 690-0251) and is an extension of Zimbabwe’s CAMPFIRE programme which extends to local communities the rights to manage and profit from wildlife. According to the terms of the grant from USAID, CASS was to collect socioeconomic information from the areas involved in the programme. The survey was our response to that mandate. During 1991, CASS field staff interviewed representatives of more than 3200 households in the program area. This report briefly describes that process and reports some of the basic socioeconomic information that was collected. It tabulates information by ward in the study area. Because of this format, it is difficult to present anything that is at all analytical. Because we present information ward by ward, there is simply not enough room on the page to contain cross tabulations or other more informative analyses. We are limited to an overall profile and description of some basic socioeconomic information. Other reports using the data take a more analytical approach

Crop And Livestock Losses To Wild Animals In The Bulilimangwe Natural Resources Management Project Area

This working paper describes patterns of wildlife damage to crops and livestock in the seven wards surveyed by CASS in the wards of Bulilimamangwe district that are included in the Natural Resources Management Project. It attempts to formulate some implications for program policy. It is intended to provoke discussion and prompt response. A more finished version will be included in a more comprehensive report to be finished later.The CASS/MAT working paper series is funded by the USAID Natural Resources Management Project (number 690-025

Connecting food systems for co-benefits: how can food systems combine diet-related health with environmental and economic policy goals?

This policy brief was prepared in support of the Austrian EU Presidency to explore how food systems can combine diet-related health with environmental and economic policy goals. It builds on considerable earlier work by analysing the connections between different policy goals and between policy goals and food systems. Through this process, the authors identify 3 core aspects of food systems functioning which would need to connect (economic benefits for farmers and businesses derived from the production and delivery of nutritious food using sustainable methods) in order to produce co-benefits

Brief 1: Tackling Food Systems Challenges: The Role of Food Policy

Food systems are at the heart of many of the major challenges facing the world today. A fresh approach to food policy is needed to provide real solutions to these challenges. The purpose of this series of Briefs is to suggest ways forward for doing food policy differently in the 21st century

COVID-19 and the gendered markets of people and products: explaining inequalities in infections and death

COVID-19 has exposed and exploited existing inequalities in gender to drive inequities in health outcomes. Evidence illustrates the relationship between occupation, ethnicity and gender to increase risk of infection in some places. Higher death rates are seen among people also suffering from non-communicable diseases – e.g. heart disease and lung disease driven by exposure to harmful patterns of exposure to corporate products (tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods), corporate by-products (e.g. outdoor air pollution) or gendered corporate processes (e.g. gendered occupational risk). The paper argues that institutional gender blindness in the health system means that underlying gender inequalities have not been taken into consideration in policies and programmatic responses to COVID-19

Socially Constructed Determinants of Health: The Case for Synergies to Arrive at Gendered Global Health Law

Both gender and the law are significant determinants of health and well-being. Here, we put forward evidence to unpack the relationship between gender and outcomes in health and well-being, and explore how legal determinants interact and intersect with gender norms to amplify or reduce health inequities across populations. The paper explores the similarities between legal and health systems in their response to gender—both systems portray gender neutrality but would be better described as gender-blind. We conclude with a set of recommendations to address both law and gender in implementing the work of the Lancet Commission on the legal determinants of health to improve health outcomes for all, irrespective of gender