Goals for a sustainable future
Today at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, 193 world leaders will commit to 17 Global Goals that will guide economic, social and government policy for the next 15 years. The goals identify issues such as poverty, education, health, climate change and more as major priority areas to focus on in order to achieve sustainable development.
The George Institute for Global Health is a strong supporter and advocate of these Global Goals. Goal Three “Good health and wellbeing: ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages” aligns very closely with our mission to “improve the health of millions of people worldwide”. At the same time much of our work also upholds Goal Five “Gender equality”, Goal 10 “Reduced inequalities” plus many others.
“These goals provide targets for people, organisations and governments to work towards over the next 15 years,” said Principal Director of The George Institute Professor Robyn Norton. “By committing ourselves to these goals, we can collectively achieve development that is as good for humanity and the environment as it is for business and the economy.”
The Global Goals are an offshoot of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were launched in 2000 with a target year of 2015. Recognising the success of the MDGs and that a new development agenda was needed, a number of countries agreed in 2012 at Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, to develop a set of sustainable development goals for beyond 2015.
The George Institute’s work is based on our belief that medical research involves people, not test tubes: our goal is to generate research outputs that can lead to real-world change within a five-year timeframe, rather than the decades-long timeframes of other research fields. Examples of our projects currently underway around the world include:
- Using simple text messages to improve the health of heart attack survivors in Australia
- Reducing road traffic accidents and fatalities in India
- Investigating possible links between birth weight and childhood cancer in the UK
- Understanding the real-world use of basal insulin to treat diabetes in China
“With the new Global Goals focusing on a broader range of health issues than the MDGs, there are substantial opportunities for The George Institute to play an important role in the achievement of these goals,” said Professor Norton, “and we look forward to partnering with colleagues across the world to ensure their success.”