WHO welcomes the launch of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and commits to work with partners around the world to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Building on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDG agenda demonstrates unprecedented scope and ambition. Poverty eradication, health, education, and food security and nutrition remain priorities, but the 17 SDGs also encompass a broad range of economic, social and environmental objectives, as well as the promise of more peaceful and inclusive societies.

SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, profiles health as a desirable outcome in its own right. Importantly, however, health is also presented as an input to other goals, and a reliable measure of how well sustainable development is progressing in general.