Implementing the End TB Strategy and the intersection with the Sustainable Development Goals, 2016–2030

Global health and TB care and prevention have entered a new era. With the adoption of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to succeed the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), new impetus has been given to integrating health and development.1 The introduction of the SDGs will help shape collaborative efforts to improve health outcomes generally, and TB burden specifically, over the next 15 years.2,3

Health is a cornerstone of sustainable development, in particular among low- and middle-income settings, and an area where substantial resources have been mobilised and significant achievements made over the past 15 years. According to the United Nations (UN) MDG Report,4 the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day was reduced by over 1 billion, with the proportion of undernourished people down from 23.3% in 1992–1993 to 12.9% in 2014–2015. Global number of deaths among children under 5 years of age halved from 12.7 to 6 million per annum in 15 years—an improvement but a long way to go. Official development assistance concurrently increased from $81 billion in 1990 to $135 billion in 2015, although it appears to have plateaued over the last 3–4 years for health.5