In particular, Malaria Consortium feels strongly that health and malaria should remain a high priority in the SDGs. It is becoming increasingly clear that disease prevention and access to affordable, equitable and quality healthcare are fundamental to realising many other development goals, such as education, child and maternal health and economic development. Malaria Consortium urge negotiators to ensure that the SDGs ‘leave no-one behind’, tackle diseases of poverty such as neglected tropical diseases, and extends universal health coverage to all.
Malaria remains one of the main causes of child and maternal mortality in the developing world, despite substantial success over recent years, and so we hope that the SDGs retain a strong commitment to tackling this disease. To achieve this it is important that the SDG malaria indicators are aligned with the new malaria Global Technical Strategy 2016-2030, due to be launched at the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa in July.
It is encouraging to hear that the Scottish National Party is committed to seeing a robust and universal successor to the Millennium Development Goals. We would urge the SNP to outline further their international development priorities, and make a strong commitment to defeating malaria and realising the right to health for all.