Sustainable Development Goals and their Impact on Health Care and Life Sciences

This article discusses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their impact on health care and life sciences. It focuses on the three goals that impact these sectors the most: No Poverty, Zero Hunger, and Good Health and Wellbeing. The article explores strategies to achieve these goals and ways to monitor progress.

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Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were developed by the United Nations
Development Programme. They were aimed at ensuring that the quality of life for every
individual on earth is improved by 2030. There are three goals that impact the health care and
life sciences sectors in great way. These are: No Poverty, Zero Hunger and Good Health and
Wellbeing. There are various strategies that could be put in place to ensure that these goals
are realized. For instance, governments could invest in training health care professionals,
employing modern farming techniques to ensure food security and creating more
employment avenues.
Introduction
The sustainable development goals were developed by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP). The goals were geared towards ensuring that the quality
of life for every individual on the universe is improved (World Health Organization 2015).
The goals are 17 in total and the deadline for their achievement is 2030. There are three goals
that have a great impact on the area of health care and life sciences. These are the first three
goals: No Poverty, Zero Hunger and Good Health and Wellbeing. The goals have either a
direct or indirect impact on the sectors. For instance, poverty has an indirect impact by
causing people to have inadequate access to health care services. The third one (Good Health
and Wellbeing) has a direct impact as it aims at ensuring universal primary healthcare
coverage. This paper is going to focus on these three goals. The assignment is going to focus
on strategies to achieve the goals and some ways of monitoring progress.
No Poverty
The first goal among the sustainable development goals is that of eradicating poverty
in all its forms. Poverty refers to a situation where an individual or a community do not have
access to enough resources to cater for their needs. poverty may either be absolute or relative.
In most countries of the world, a person is regarded poor if their income is less than half the
per capita amount. Governments could ensure reduction of poverty by creating more
employment avenues and encouraging self-employment. Consequences of poverty are almost
always negative. When it comes to the areas of healthcare and life science, the issue of
poverty is significant. To understand the consequences of poverty in these sectors, it would

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be wise to look at the at the individual, community, national, regional and international
levels.
When an individual is poor, they don not have the ability to have an adequate supply
of safe and nutritious foods (Lu et al. 2015). They are also likely to be living in poor housing
conditions. Such an individual is also prone to using water that is contaminated and unsafe
for human consumption. When a person is not able to access an adequate supply of food, they
are said to be food insecure (Nilsson, Griggs and Visbeck 2016.). Food insecurity is
associated with malnutrition. On the other hand, malnutrition is associated with reduced
immunity. This means that such a person is more prone to illnesses. The conditions of poor
housing and contaminated water also contribute to the likelihood of ill health. In addition to
being at more risk of contracting infections, an individual who is poor has no access to health
care services. This is because they do not have the financial access to the care. Such
individuals also tend to live in rural areas where clinics are geographically far.
From the individual level, the problem of poverty causes the communities to be at
more risk of illnesses. In situations where the issue is widespread, it is observed at the
regional and international levels. When it comes to poverty, it is an international issue. This is
not only in the developing countries but also in the developed ones. For instance, extensive
evidence shows that there is a high rate of child poverty in the United States of America.
Poverty is therefore an international issue and should be addressed as such. This probably
explains why it is the first goal among the 17 sustainable development goals.
Eradication of poverty would greatly help improve health outcomes. With adequate
resources, people would have access to appropriate health care services that would help
improve the quality of lives (Le 2015). If poverty is eradicated, there would also be increased
research in the area of life science industry. Such research would help come with better health
care interventions. To monitor the progress in the eradication of poverty, it would be best to
measure the ability of individuals in all nations worldwide to have access to food, shelter and
healthcare services. Such an assessment would help create a good picture of the situation at a
point in time. Tools such as the Household Food Security Questionnaires could be used to
collect the appropriate data.
Zero Hunger

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This is the second goal among the 17 sustainable development goals. It is true to say
that a nation cannot progress if it is unable to feed its people. Food is the source of energy
and nutrients that human beings need for survival. It is sad to note that there is still a
significant proportion of the world population that does not have access to safe and nutritious
foods. A person is said to be food secure if they have access to adequate and nutritious foods
to meet their dietary requirements (Dora et al. 2015). In addition, the food must be safe and
the people must have economic and physical access to it at all times. Otherwise, people
would be considered food insecure. Food is considered a basic necessity and it is major
contributor to health and wellbeing. Hunger could be eliminated through using modern
farming methods to increase food security.
In the modern days, food access contributes to health in two three major ways. One,
when the access to food is optimal, people are likely to enjoy good health. Secondly, when
there is inadequate access to food, people are prone to malnutrition and are at a higher risk of
other illnesses, especially the infectious conditions (Buse and Hawkes 2015). Thirdly, is the
issue of overnutrition. This has been associated with obesity and chronic diseases of lifestyle.
These diseases include diabetes mellitus type 2 and some types of cancer. It follows that the
achievement of the goal would have both positive and negative consequences to the health
care and life sciences sectors. There are several ways of monitoring the progress being made
on the achievement of the goal. Most of these focus on assessing the food security status of
households. For instance, the household food security questionnaire. Doing the assessments
at certain intervals would help monitor the progress that is being made in the endeavour to
eradicate hunger by 2030.
Good Health and Wellbeing
This is the third goal among the 17 sustainable development goals. The goal is
directly linked to the sectors of health care and life sciences. The goal aims at ensuring that
all people in the world have access to health care services by 2030. The goal mainly focusing
on achieving universal primary health care. At the current time, there are huge health
disparities (World Bank Group, 2014). There are still many individuals who do not have
access to primary health care services (Tangcharoensathien, Mills and Palu, 2015). If people
have access to adequate health care services, the life expectancy would significantly increase
and people would live better quality lives.

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Good health goal could achieve if governments invested in training more health care
professionals to meet the needs of the population. Achievement of the goal could be
monitored using several ways. Some of these would be assessing the approximate number of
people who have access to primary health care services. An assessment could also be done to
determine the ratio of health care providers to the number of people in a population (Berwick
2016). This would be a good indicator of access to health care services. Another way to
monitor the health care situation would be to monitor the number of health care professionals
who are completing studies and being assimilated in to the work force. The poverty index of
a population could also tell the situation of health care in a population.
Conclusion
The sustainable development goals refer to a plan made by the United Nations
through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The plan established a total of
17 goals. These goals are aimed at ensuring that the lives of people all over the world are
greatly improved by 2030. There are 3 goals that influence the health care and life sciences
sectors in a great way. It also happens that they are the first three goals. The goals are No
Poverty, Zero Hunger and Good Health and Wellbeing.
The goal of No Poverty aims at eradicating poverty in all its forms and in all places.
Poverty significantly affects the health care and life sciences sectors in negative ways. For
instance, poor people do not have access to adequate nutrition and access to health services.
Measures of food security are a good way of monitoring progress in the achievement of the
goal. The goal of zero hunger aims at ensuring that every individual in the universe becomes
food secure. Food security is state in which all people have access to adequate and nutritious
foods. In addition, the foods must be safe for human consumption. The other goal is that of
good health and wellbeing. The aim of the goal is to ensure that all people in the world have
access to universal primary health care.

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