Aligning Public Health with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Public health and sustainable development are not separate agendas – they are deeply connected. The health of a population shapes its economic productivity, social stability, and long-term growth. At the same time, environmental conditions, economic policies, and social structures determine who gets access to healthcare and who doesn’t. This intersection is precisely what the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seek to address, with SDG 3 – “Good Health and Well-Being” – sitting at the centre of the global development framework.

What does SDG 3 actually aim for? 🔗

SDG 3 is one of the 17 goals adopted by UN Member States in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Its overarching objective is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all people, at every stage of life. But this isn’t a vague aspiration – it comes with specific, measurable targets.

The targets of SDG 3 span a wide range of health issues: reducing maternal mortality (Target 3.1), ending preventable deaths of children under five (Target 3.2), fighting communicable diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria (Target 3.3), reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (Target 3.4), preventing substance abuse (Target 3.5), reducing road injuries (Target 3.6), ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare (Target 3.7), achieving universal health coverage (Target 3.8), and reducing deaths from hazardous chemicals and pollution (Target 3.9). Additionally, there are targets around tobacco control, vaccine access, health financing in developing nations, and early warning systems for global health risks.

The ‘health for all’ commitment 🔗

At the heart of SDG 3 lies the principle of universal health coverage (UHC) – the idea that every person should be able to access quality health services without facing financial ruin. This is the operational form of the “Health for All” vision that the World Health Organization has promoted for decades.

Progress toward UHC has stagnated in recent years. While the UHC coverage index improved from 45 in 2000 to 68 in 2021, gains after 2015 have been minimal and have essentially stalled since 2019. Even more concerning, the share of the global population affected by catastrophic out-of-pocket health spending rose from 9.6% in 2000 to 13.5% in 2019, with low-income populations bearing the heaviest burden.

This tells us something important: making healthcare available is not the same as making it accessible or affordable. A hospital may exist in a district, but if a family has to sell assets to pay for treatment, the system is failing them. UHC demands that accessibility, affordability, and adequacy of health services work together – not just one at a time.

Where do we stand on key health targets? 🔗

There has been real, measurable progress. As of 2023, 133 countries had already met the SDG target for under-5 mortality. Effective HIV treatment has halved global AIDS-related deaths since 2010, and at least one neglected tropical disease has been eliminated in 54 countries by the end of 2024.

However, other indicators are less encouraging. The global maternal mortality ratio decreased from 228 per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 197 in 2023, but reaching the target of 70 per 100,000 would require preventing nearly 700,000 additional deaths between 2024 and 2030. On communicable diseases, TB incidence rose by 3.6% between 2020 and 2021, reversing years of steady decline.

Ten years into the 2030 Agenda and with just five years remaining, none of SDG 3’s targets have been fully achieved. The COVID-19 pandemic reversed much of the progress made in areas like childhood immunisation and disease surveillance.

Environmental degradation and its health consequences 🔗

Sustainable development and public health cannot be discussed without addressing the environment. The connection is direct and well-documented: environmental factors like air pollution, contaminated water, unsafe sanitation, and chemical exposure cause disease, disability, and death on a massive scale.

According to the WHO, as much as 24% of all deaths worldwide in 2016 were attributable to environmental factors, including air pollution, unsafe water and sanitation, heat waves, harmful chemicals, and more. The WHO’s environmental burden of disease framework quantifies these impacts and highlights that most of this burden falls on low- and middle-income countries.

Between 2030 and 2050, climate change alone is projected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress. The direct health damage costs are estimated at USD 2-4 billion annually by 2030.

The climate-health-inequality nexus 🔗

Climate change threatens every essential ingredient of good health – clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food, and safe shelter – and has the potential to undermine decades of progress in global health. It is also reducing the capacity of the health workforce and infrastructure, limiting countries’ ability to provide universal health coverage.

This is not a future problem. It is happening now. A 2024 report from the World Economic Forum warned that by 2050, climate change could cause 14.5 million deaths and USD 12.5 trillion in economic losses. An additional 500 million people may be at risk of exposure to vector-borne diseases, and around 80 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and Central America could face hunger due to disrupted agricultural systems.

The critical point here is that these environmental and climate-related health impacts do not affect everyone equally. Communities with fewer resources, weaker health infrastructure, and limited political voice bear the greatest burden – widening existing socio-economic disparities.

Lifestyle changes and the rise of non-communicable diseases 🔗

While communicable diseases like TB and malaria remain major concerns, the global disease landscape has shifted significantly toward non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory conditions now account for the majority of global deaths.

NCDs currently account for 63% of all deaths worldwide. The cumulative economic losses for low- and middle-income countries from the four major NCDs are estimated to exceed USD 7 trillion by 2025. These diseases are closely linked to lifestyle factors – diets high in processed food, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and harmful alcohol consumption – many of which are shaped by urbanisation, commercialisation, and changing social norms.

In 2021, an estimated 18 million people under 70 died from NCDs globally, making up more than half of all premature deaths. The SDG target of reducing premature NCD mortality by one-third by 2030 is currently not on track.

This is where the sustainable development framing becomes essential. NCD prevention is not purely a medical challenge – it requires urban planning that encourages physical activity, food systems that prioritise nutrition over profit, regulation of tobacco and alcohol industries, and economic policies that reduce poverty-driven health risks.

Socio-economic disparities in health outcomes 🔗

Health outcomes are shaped not just by biology and medical care, but by social and economic conditions. Income, education, geography, gender, and caste or ethnicity all play a role in determining who lives longer and who dies earlier.

Coverage of reproductive, maternal, child, and adolescent health services tends to be significantly higher among those who are richer, more educated, and living in urban areas, especially in low-income countries. This means that even when health services exist on paper, access in practice remains deeply unequal.

The SDG Knowledge Hub underscores that health is shaped by social, economic, environmental, and other factors, which is why integrated, whole-of-society approaches are needed to create policies that shape and sustain healthy lives. Addressing public health through isolated medical interventions, without tackling the structural causes of inequality, will always fall short.

The role of media in public health and sustainable development 🔗

Media – both traditional and digital – plays a significant role in shaping public understanding of health issues, influencing policy, and driving behavioural change. In the context of sustainable development, media serves as both an awareness-building tool and an accountability mechanism.

Health communication and awareness 🔗

Mass media helps spread health knowledge and inform people over extended periods, ultimately aiding changes in attitude, knowledge, and practice (KAP) that lead to better health outcomes. Whether it is a government-run broadcasting channel, a newspaper health column, or a social media campaign, media interventions have demonstrated measurable impact on health literacy.

The WHO has recognised health literacy as a key mechanism for meeting the health-related SDGs. When people understand health risks, preventive measures, and how to navigate healthcare systems, they make better decisions for themselves and their families.

Research from the National Academies of Sciences provides a compelling case study: after a one-minute storyline about emergency contraception aired on the television show ER, viewer awareness of the topic increased from 50% to 67%, with 20% of viewers reporting they had learned about the issue from the programme. This demonstrates the power of entertainment media in delivering public health information at scale.

Media as an accountability tool 🔗

A free and independent media can inform and influence public opinion about government policy, monitor the performance of public institutions, expose misconduct, and advocate for change. In the SDG context, media outlets can hold governments accountable for their health commitments, report on gaps in implementation, and give voice to communities that are being left behind.

Independent media are not only specifically referenced in SDG 16 (Target 16.10, on public access to information), but they also support progress on other SDGs – acting as both a precondition for progress and a multiplier that amplifies change.

Social media and health narratives 🔗

The rise of social media has added a new dimension to health communication. Social media facilitates diverse forms of storytelling, new kinds of interactions, and challenges traditional health perspectives. It enhances emotional support networks, influences health-related decisions, raises awareness, and transforms how patients and doctors communicate.

However, this comes with significant challenges. The same platforms that spread accurate health information also amplify misinformation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term “infodemic” was coined to describe the flood of misleading health content that circulated alongside legitimate information. Research in public health communication emphasises that strategies must evolve to address the dynamic, networked, and increasingly user-generated media environment of our time.

Large-scale interventions: what works? 🔗

Tackling the health-sustainable development nexus requires interventions at multiple levels – from global policy frameworks to community-level programmes.

Immunisation remains one of the most cost-effective health interventions. Immunisation prevents an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths every year, yet around two in five countries need to accelerate progress to meet SDG immunisation targets.

Pandemic preparedness has become a major focus. In May 2025, countries adopted the first global agreement on pandemic preparedness and response – a direct result of lessons learned from COVID-19.

Addressing environmental health risks through better water and sanitation, cleaner air, and climate adaptation measures in health systems is critical. The WHO has called for building climate-resilient health systems and mainstreaming environmental sustainability into health service investments.

Investing in health financing for developing countries is essential. The SDGs recognise the interdependence of health and development, providing a comprehensive framework for ending the injustices that underpin poor health outcomes.

Why public health needs a sustainability lens 🔗

The traditional approach to public health – treating disease after it occurs – is insufficient in the face of 21st-century challenges. Climate change, rapid urbanisation, ageing populations, and globalised supply chains all create new health risks that cannot be addressed by the health sector alone.

Unsustainable globalisation of economic activities, lifestyles, and social structures has contributed to environmental degradation, posing major threats to human health at both local and global levels. The response must be equally multi-dimensional: cross-sector collaboration between health, environment, education, trade, and urban planning ministries is the only way to build genuinely sustainable health systems.

This is ultimately what the SDGs are asking for – not just medical solutions, but systemic change. A child’s health is determined not only by the availability of vaccines but also by whether their community has clean water, whether their parents can afford nutritious food, whether the air they breathe is safe, and whether their government is investing in long-term public health infrastructure.

What do you think? Can public health goals truly be achieved without first addressing environmental degradation and socio-economic inequality? And how can media – both traditional and digital – be used more effectively to hold governments accountable for their commitments under the SDGs?

References

1. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/
2. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3
3. https://www.who.int/activities/environmental-health-impacts
4. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/04/this-earth-day-we-consider-the-impact-of-climate-change-on-human-health-110b71b453/
5. https://sdg.iisd.org/news/sdg-3-ensure-healthy-lives-and-promote-well-being-for-all-at-all-ages/
6. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8271280/
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK221224/
8. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health