Sustainable Development Goals for Health Joint Statement by the IEA and WFPHA

The United Nations is developing a list of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are intended to guide efforts to reduce poverty and improve health and well-being in all countries by 2030 while protecting the planet. One of the 17 goals – goal number 3 – relates to health: “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (1). The SDGs will replace the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which end in 2015.

The International Epidemiological Association (IEA) and the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) sponsored joint sessions on the SDGs, both at the IEA World Congress of Epidemiology in Anchorage, USA, in August 2014 and at the WFPHA World Congress of Public Health in Kolkata, India, in February 2015. Both sessions focused on the need for measurable, reliable health indicators for the single health-related SDG.

The current draft of SDG3 (for health) includes 13 sub-goals and many health ...

GOARN Request for Assistance: Ebola Virus Outbreak in West Africa

The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is at a critical stage, requiring continued additional support at the national and subnational levels in the affected countries. The Ministries of Health in these countries have been responding to the outbreak in collaboration with WHO, and with the technical support of GOARN partners since March 2014.  As of 23 February 2015, GOARN Operational Support Team has deployed over 530 experts from partner institutions. In light f the complex challenges of Phase 2 “Getting to Zero” in this outbreak, GOARN is issuing this further RFA to support the increased efforts that will be required for coordination, surveillance, and effective contact tracing.

Those interested in contributing to this effort should download the GOARN information sheet and call for experts.

Reducing premature mortality as the Sustainable Development Goal for Health

As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals approaches, there has been a lively debate about the next generation of global goals and targets: the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The 17 SDGs include a single goal for health (“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”), with 13 subgoals and targets addressing maternal and child health, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, accidents and injuries and several other conditions. However, the overarching goal of ensuring healthy lives has not been expressed so far as a measureable target.

The IEA joined the discussion on the SDGs in May 2013, by posting an official position paper on the World We Want website, followed by a letter to The Lancet. We argued that it was essential to have a single quantifiable target to monitor progress, and we suggested that if should be based on ...

Thanks to Cesar Victora, for his work as IEA President, 2011-2014

Epidemiologists from around the world thank Cesar Victora for his work over the last three years, as President of the IEA, promoting epidemiology and its use to solve major public health problems. He has expanded IEA membership, increased our global visibility, supported the preparation of new IEA-sponsored publications and set up new initiatives to promote epidemiological research in Africa. As well he has worked behind the scenes streamlining administrative matters within the association.

Through his work, the IEA has been closely involved in the Countdown to 2015 Initiative, aimed at monitoring progress toward the 2015 United Nations Millenium Development Goals, and has argued eloquently for using measureable outcomes for the new post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Over the last three years Cesar has been a visible and much respected ambassador for epidemiology and for the IEA. We are pleased that he will continue ...