Download Session 5 – Unpicking the SDGs – part 2

ICE – March 2016
Unpicking SDG’s – Part 2 – Session 5
Health – 3 important thresholds
• They have redefined global health problems and priorities as more
broad-based and inclusive;
• By reprioritising the global health agenda, they may divert funding
from some global health organizations and initiatives; and
• They have laid out new norms, principles, and institutions for dealing
with global health challenges
Delivering better health care
• Preventative – more teachers than doctors
• Women’s Health - http://www.womendeliver.org/knowledgecenter/publications/invest-in-girls-and-women-everybody-wins-2014/
• Since 1990 we have seen unprecedented progress in improving global
health outcomes, thanks in part to the priority given to health in the
MDGs (3 out of 8 MDGs were focused on health). A 47% reduction in
maternal mortality, and a 49% reduction in child mortality are just
two of the extraordinary achievements of the past generation.
Other factors
• Strong, resilient and equitable systems that enable all people to live
healthy lives are required at country level – the global health
architecture should be rethought in a way that best supports the
building of these systems.
• A fundamental shift affecting global health is the rising burden of
non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The ageing of the population – a
key driver in the rise of NCDs – represents a significant challenge to
global health. Low-income and lower-middle-income countries that
are still battling infectious diseases are faced with a ‘double burden’
of disease that in many cases overstretches already weak health
systems
Lessons from Ebola
• The recent Ebola crisis in West Africa has shown that weak health systems make
countries more vulnerable, and underscores the importance of strengthening
these systems to protect global health security. There is a need for enhanced
global disease surveillance and detection capacities, as well as improved
international coordination in responding to emerging health threats
• Global health funders must continue to explore how their strategies can address
the rising challenges of poor populations and pockets of high disease burden in
middle-income countries. Supporting fragile states more effectively will also be
critical in the SDG era, as their populations are disproportionally affected by
major health problems.
• Insufficient financing and weak incentives currently exist for investment in
research and development (R&D) to tackle neglected and poverty-related
diseases. Expanding R&D financing and the range of incentives for investing in
R&D is a priority area for action
Urbanisation – just a few considerations
• Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. If current trends
continue, between 2000 and 2030 urban land cover is expected to triple, while
urban populations are expected to nearly double. Most of the growth is expected
to happen in small and medium-sized cities, not in megacities.
• Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat
island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have
significant impacts on local and regional net primary production, biodiversity and
ecosystem functions.
• Urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a
global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on
effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere
Urbanisation - 2
• Urban land expansion is occurring rapidly in areas adjacent to biodiversity
hotspots, and faster in low-elevation, biodiversity-rich coastal zones than in
other areas.
• Future urban expansion will mainly occur in regions of limited economic
and institutional capacity, which will constrain management of biodiversity
and ecosystem services. Half the increase in urban land across the world
over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive patterns
of change expected to take place in India and China
• Sustainability Issues
Climate Change
• Climate change is a major challenge — and it sits among many other major
challenges targeted by the post-2015 development goals. Biodiversity,
health, education, energy and others influence and are influenced by
climate change. So goals about them will also mean action on climate
change.
• Development goals that focus on the root causes of sustainability
challenges bring people together; they also minimise the risk that goals will
interfere with each other. But highlighting a single environmental driving
factor such as climate change can be counterproductive.
• Climate change action is usually separated into two categories, despite
continual calls for merging them. The first is ‘mitigation’, which refers to
reducing emissions and increasing the removal of greenhouse gases. The
second is ‘adaptation’, which means reducing climate change’s adverse
impacts and exploiting its positive impacts
Climate Change
• mitigation is addressed through Goals 7 on energy, 12 and 14 on resources, and 15 on
land use, among others. Achieving sustainable resource management and preventing
pollution necessarily means reducing fossil fuel dependency while increasing energy
efficiency. And a goal to reduce all pollution, by definition, tackles greenhouse gases.
• Within pollution-prevention goals (such as 6 and 14), quantitative targets could be
developed for a long list of specific emissions, including those associated with climate
change. Having a goal that selects only one, such as carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide
equivalent, excludes many persistent organic pollutants and smog contributors.
• Similarly, growing and protecting trees is important for mitigation. But considering all
ecosystems together — as done by the goals on water, resources and land use — is more
effective because it gives people sustainable livelihoods based on using natural resources
without harming ecosystems. That addresses the root causes of sustainability problems
and must necessarily achieve mitigation without excluding people or sacrificing other
ecosystems for forests.
Climate Change
• Adaptation involves actions such as managing waterways to avoid extreme floods
and droughts, protecting built heritage sites against freeze-thaw cycles and
helping people who cannot afford temperature control inside their homes to
survive hot and cold spells. Such actions are needed irrespective of climate
change.
• And such actions were indeed being implemented — as part of disaster risk
reduction for all hazards — long before climate change became a major concern.
If goals seek reduced disaster risk across all hazards, including climate-related
ones, then adaptation is incorporated by definition
• For instance, rather than proposed Goal 13.1 being to “strengthen resilience and
adaptive capacity to climate induced hazards and natural disasters in all
countries”, it could say “strengthen disaster risk reduction in all countries”. If
development goals aim for adaptation only, without aiming for disaster risk
reduction across all hazards, then resilience cannot be achieved.
Climate Change – some practical
considerations
• What does this mean in practical terms? Hospitals ought to be built
outside floodplains that are likely to expand due to climate change.
But they could still collapse in the next earthquake — so they should
be multi-hazard resilient, not just adapted to climate change. That
requires goals encompassing, but extending beyond, adaptation.
• Governments need to plan sensibly against the obvious problems
shown above.
• Let’s consider the broad reactions
Climate Changes – the facts
• Climate change makes existing problems much much worse
• Imagine different global challenges as fires burning – issues like poverty, conflict,
refugees, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and natural disasters.
Adding climate change into the mix is like throwing petrol on all of those fires –
making them burn faster and making them much harder to control.
• The impacts of climate change depend on the level of warming
• The impacts of climate change are already being felt. But they become much
worse the hotter it gets! This is why many are calling for governments to keep
global warming well below 1.5 degrees.
• Climate change is impacting the poorest first and worst
• The poorest people have done the least to cause climate change in the first place.
But they are feeling the brunt of its impacts because they often depend directly
on natural resources for their livelihoods, have the least ability to respond to
climate change and often live in more marginal areas.
Climate Change – the facts
• We are all, rich and poor, being impacted by climate change
• Although climate change has the biggest impact on the poor it affects everyone. Climate
change is not a future problem it is a current problem. Effects are happening now:
changes to weather patterns, sea level rises, changes to the distribution of plant and
animal species, reduced access to water, and social impacts like food prices, increased
conflict and migration
• We all have a responsibility to tackle climate change and support those impacted by
climate change
• This needs to be reflected in the lifestyle choices we make, the actions of our leaders and
the financial commitments from the UK government
• Like many aspects of poverty, climate change is a political and economic problem
• Climate change is often portrayed as an environmental problem. But actually it is the
result of how our economies are structured and fuelled. And responding to those
challenges requires political and economic solutions
That’s it – vast topic!!
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