| Abstract: | The year 2015 saw the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN), to lead the global development agenda up till the year 2030. The SDGs are comprised of 17 global goals, with a total of 169 targets.
Of all the 17 SDGs, the health goal, ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all ages, i.e. SDG 3 has the largest number of indicators. With the emergence of SDGs, every member country has embarked on aligning country developmental goals and plans with that of the SDGs.
Similarly, in the Maldives, as with other agencies and stakeholders within the government, the Ministry of Health (MoH) is working towards meeting the targets of the global agenda in the process of improving the health services provided to citizens scattered geographically across swathes of ocean, which in itself poses challenges.
This report duly focuses on the work that is being undertaken at the island, atoll, and country level in terms of meeting the targets of SDGs, the progress that has been made, the milestones achieved, and the challenges that remain as MoH forges ahead with its plans and policies to translate these goals into reality on the ground.
As there exists interdependence and inter-linkages between the goals, this report also looks into SDG 2 which deals with ending hunger and achieving food security for improved nutrition, which in a large way translates into healthy lives and promoting wellbeing.
The main focus of the report however, is made on the goals within the goal of SDG 3. It takes an in-depth look into areas such as the work that is currently being done to put an end to preventable deaths of new-borns and children under five years of age, to ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis etc. to ensuring healthy lifestyles to prevent the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that have become prevalent and are in a large way the leading cause of deaths in modern societies.
Amidst all this, due attention is given to challenges faced in terms of hiring and retaining adequately trained local human capital in the sector, the geographical challenges owing to the fact that Maldives is a small island state, the lack of robust
Ministry of Health, Republic of Maldives
mechanisms in handling data that can be relied on to drive policies to forge ahead, and the need for increased stakeholder engagements when achieving milestones as SDGs themselves are multi-dimensional in nature.
The future lies in finding ways to overcome the barriers to progress identified, and using a whole-of-government (WOG) approach in some cases, if not all, to achieve the SDGs in question.
Reports in the future will look into broadening the scope, by including other health related SDGs not specifically grouped under SDG 3, but yet contribute in a large way towards bridging the gaps and bringing the health-related goals full circle. |
