After nearly three years of planning and negotiations, the 193 member states of the United Nations agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on 2nd August, with "ending poverty in all its forms everywhere" at the top of the list.
TB, AIDS, and Malaria are strongly reflected in the new goals as a result of strong advocacy efforts by the communicable disease community. The 17 SDGs, which contain 169 targets, will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which expire at the end of the year.
The United Nations will hold a Summit for the adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda on September 25th-27th in New York, where the SDGs are expected to be endorsed by all governments. Implementation of the SDGs will begin on 1 January 2016.
Health is strongly reflected in the SDGs under Goal 3, ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. The target on tuberculosis, AIDS, and Malaria is included under 3.3: ‘by 2030 end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases, and other communicable diseases’.
The UN is currently holding an open consultation for feedback on the indicators through which progress on the targets will be measured. All stakeholders are invited to submit feedback, which can be done through this link. The proposed TB indicators can be viewed here (Page 19 and 20).
While the world will meet the MDG goal to halt and reverse the spread of TB by 2015, it remains to be seen if the Stop TB Partnership targets to halve TB mortality and prevalence rates by 2015 compared with 1990 will be met. With adequate resources and political commitment governments can still reach the mortality target, but it looks increasing unlikely that the world will meet the goal to halve prevalence.
The UN is currently holding an open consultation for feedback on the indicators through which progress on the targets will be measured. All stakeholders are invited to submit feedback, which can be done through this link. The proposed TB indicators can be viewed here (Page 19 and 20).