VCAA Health and Human Development Health and the Sustainable Development Goals

Neglected tropical diseases are a collection of diseases that have not had enough resources and effort directed towards. These diseases are more prevalence in tropical regions and can be infectious and communicable.

By having collaborative actions, whereby SDG’s 3, 4 and 2 work together they can help achieve the 90% reduction in NTD’s by 2030. By ensuring that all children complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary schooling ‘key feature of SDG 4 Quality education’ children in tropical climates can be taught the importance of how to prevent their risk of contracting NTD’s and how to reduce spreading it to others. This sees the education sector work in collaboration with the health sector to achieve SDG 3 Good health and wellbeing by ‘reducing communicable disease’ posed by NTD’s. Additionally by achieving SDG 2 ‘Zero hunger’ and ensuring all people have access to safe and nutritious food all year round, specifically the poor and those in vulnerable situations such as infants, it can mean that people develop strong immune systems which can resist and fight off NTD’s. This therefore works to achieve SDG 3 Good health and wellbeing by working to ‘reduce communicable diseases’ such as NTDs as less people are contracting them as they have well-functioning immune systems.

Good H+W means achieving universal access to healthcare such as vaccinations. If people are free from illness they are able to work and earn an income, this enables increased tax revenue by governments to invest into implementing social protection measures such as welfare payment promoting no poverty (SDG 1). No poverty means eradicating extreme poverty (those living on less than US$1.90 per day) (SDG 1), this enables people to be able to afford health promoting resources such as nutritious food like vegetables promoting immune system strength. This reduces the risk of contracting communicable diseases such as malaria promoting good H+W (SDG 3).

One way of taking social action is by donating to an NGO, for example World Vision, to enable it to continue its work in poverty reduction. By donating to World Vision, an individual can help fund its programs to teach farmers in low-income countries about sustainable agricultural techniques e.g. crop rotation. These techniques enable farmers to grow crops in all seasons, thus allowing them to generate an income in all seasons, so that they can earn more than US$1.90 a day regardless of what time of the year it is. Donating to NGOs enables them to expand and continue to implement their programs, thus supporting the ‘ending of extreme poverty’ (SDG 1).

Addressing health emergencies is evident in the case. This WHO priority features helping individuals and communities recover from mass disease outbreaks by supplying medical resources. As there was a measles outbreak in 2018, causing 140 000 people to die, the WHO showed leadership alongside the CDC to supply vaccinations and immunisations to treat communities.

This initiative means the 2.9 billion children that are vaccinated were able to attend school. This develops their knowledge and enhances their capability. This means these healthy children with a good education can get a good job that earns a good income to be able to achieve a decent standard of living. They may also be able to make better informed decisions that affect their lives, thus contributing to human development.

For example:

Agriculture, fisheries and water

Multilateral aid involves international organisations such as the United Nations, collecting donations from donor countries like Australia and combining the donations to distribute aid (e.g. educate on agricultural techniques) to recipient countries like the Pacific region. Thus, enabling for large scale projects, addressing global issues like hunger.

For example:

There are many people living in poverty in countries across the Pacific region.

1. One feature of an effective aid program is one that provides ownership, this including being tailored to the needs of the recipient country and not merely the donor country. Further, ownership includes educating the low or middle income country, ensuring that once the aid ceases, it can continue to have an effect. Thus, leading to self-sufficient countries and long term, sustainable human development.

2. Another feature of an effective aid program is partnership / collaboration between various groups (eg. WHO, Water Foundation etc). Such collaboration allows for shared expertise and knowledge, making it an effective program with the best possible outcomes. Further, partnerships allows for greater funding to be provided, ensuring adequate resources are available, making for good health outcomes and an effective program.

HERE ARE TWO EXAMPLES OF HIGH-SCORING RESPONSES:

(1). By ensuring policies that require low-income countries to have regular, transparent elections, DFAT can reduce the likelihood of corrupt dictators holding power in a country. This promotes democracy, which can enable all people to have a say in who will lead them, thus promoting a sense of belonging for citizens (spiritual).

(2). By ensuring that institutions such as law courts are in operation, DFAT increases the rule of law in low-income countries, dissuading potential criminals from committing crimes as they will know they can be punished with jail time. This can reduce levels of stress and anxiety (mental) for people as they will know there’s less risk of crime, e.g. robbery.

With education young girls will have equal access as boys to school, enabling them to become literate and numerate, which increases their employability. Thus girls (and women) can have more opportunities to secure a high-paying job, which increases gender equality (SDG 5) as girls and women will have equal access to economic resources as men and boys, increasing their autonomy. With health young girls will be able to access sexual and reproductive services where they can procure contraception and learn family planning, achieving SDG 5 ‘gender equality’ because they can have more agency over when or if they have children.

Australia’s support of the GPE assists in achieving SDG 4 Quality education. This is done through the GPE’s work to provide ‘lifelong learning opportunities for all’. Additionally, the GPE seeks to improve childrens access to quality teachers, promote girls education and ensure that the poorest and most marginalised children have access to education. This assists in achieving SDG 4’s key features by ensuring all children can access safe, quality and affordable primary and secondary education and also assists in increasing numbers of qualified teachers.

The Australian government partners with multilateral organisations as it extends the reach and impact of Australia’s aid. Australia also partners with multilateral organisations on projects such as the GPE as it combines the resources of partners. For example, multilateral organisations such as the United Nations would have specific knowledge on how to implement the GPE on a global scale, meaning more children globally can receive education from this program whilst Australian Government would be able to provide funding to achieve this. Therefore, partnering with a multilateral organisation allow aid and funding from Australian government to be implemented on a global scale by combining the knowledge/skills of multilateral organisations meaning greater positive impact can be achieved.

Focus on Education

The GPE objective is to promote ‘lifelong learning opportunities for all’, this increases the effectiveness of the GPE, as once a generation receives quality education, they are more likely to educate their children, and thus contribute to a cycle of positive educational outcomes. This increases the effectiveness of the aid delivered by GPE, as programs will not have to be continuously rerun, promoting sustainability. By ensuring the poorest and most marginalised children have access to education, this assists these children in improving their literacy and numeracy skills, making them more likely to gain well paying employment later in life. This assists individuals in having financial resources to access food, water and shelter, promoting a decent standard of living.

For example: gender equality and disability inclusion, and expanding opportunities for everyone (see marking guide for more accepted answers).

Type of aid: Bilateral

Description: Bilateral aid is aid provided from the government of one country to the government of another country. Evidently, Australia is working with the government of Kiribati through the Ministry of Education to protect school facilities against the impacts of climate change.

Feature 1: Partnerships and collaboration. This involves organisations and groups working together to share resources and improve effectiveness of aid. The KEIP involves partnerships between the Kiribati Ministry of Education and the Australian government to share funding and expertise to ensure effective aid is delivered to ‘reduce future coastal flooding’ impacts through improvements to Kiribati school infrastructure.

Feature 2: Ownership by recipient country. This involves the country receiving aid being able to benefit from the aid long after the aid program officially ends. KEIP educates children about ‘climate change’ in Kiribati so that students, the next generation of Kiribati can continue to apply innovative ideas such as building flooring resistant infrastructure to minimise harm from flooding due to climate change in the future, after the KEIP ends.

The Kiribati program enables children to go to school & improve their knowledge by attaining literacy and numeracy skills. This may improve their future capabilities and provide them with greater choice on what field they want to pursue later in life. This may enable children to lead productive and creative lives according to their needs and interests.

By having teachers trained in climate change, the program may increase the capabilities of teachers in responding to and delivering curriculum about climate change. This may also improve their potential to get a job as they may have the relevant desirable skills & may be used to purchase resources like nutritious food & may assist in the achievement of a decent standard of living.

For example:

NGOs often have specialised skills, such as setting up savings programs like the Saving for Change program. Funding these programs extends the reach of Australia’s aid program.

Health and wellbeing

Through the provision of food, individuals are able to support their immune system for malnutrition is lessened, decreasing the risk of illness / disease, thus promoting physical HWB. With access to farming / cultivation equipment, the levels of food insecurity is further decreased, reducing levels of stress and anxiety thus promoting mental HWB. With access to education, individuals are able to socialise amongst their classmates and create satisfying and meaningful relationships.

Human Development

‘Saving for Change’ allows for the provision of food amongst people experiencing food shortages, thus food insecurity. With access to food, individuals are more likely to go to school and thus having access to knowledge. With access to knowledge, they are able to expand their choices within the work community, as they are more likely to be employed with an educational degree, and thus participate in the life of the community.

‘Saving for Change’ was effective as it involved partnership between the Australian Government, as well as Oxfam, the DFAT and Trade Australia. These collaborations ensured those in need who were a part of the program achieved the most benefits by having as much funding and expertise as possible. Multiple organisations may have assisted in bringing the community together by focussing on the small community where Francisco is from. The program was also results focussed as it achieved what it aimed to, which was to see improvements in poverty and hunger. The participants reported their children being sick less often, as well as saving for a new house, indicating the program achieved results it aimed to. Overall the program was effective.

Individuals can donate to non-government organisations (NGOs), such as World Vision, to assist them in continuing their work in low-income countries. This may assist funding World Vison projects that centre around education programs for women and girls in small, rural and conflict affected communities where women often have limited access or denied access to education. Thus, this may mean that more women and girls have adequate literacy and numeracy skills and have increased opportunities for employment later in life, helping to reduce inequality and discrimination based on sex in low-income countries.

Sexual orientation – Through reducing levels of discrimination based on sexual orientation, less gay and lesbian individuals will face derogatory comments from others or violent abuse, assisting in increasing their sense of belonging (spiritual) in the community as they will feel more accepted.

Gender identity – Through reducing discrimination based on gender identity, fewer transgender people will be denied access to employment, assisting them in being able to earn an income. They can use this income to afford nutritious foods, such as vegetables, helping to reduce levels of malnutrition and assisting them in being free from illness/disease (physical).

For example: It relates to the disposal of human waste (see marking criteria for more accepted answers).

If children cannot adequately wash their hands after going to the toilet, they may ingest faecal matter when eating, which can lead to diseases such as diarrheal disease. Therefore a lack of access to basic handwashing facilities may lead to children experiencing increased YLD associated with diarrheal disease.

Lobby the government by designing and sending letters to your Member of Parliament about providing more support to countries that have poor hand washing facilities. This is using your voice to make a difference by encouraging governments to acknowledge the issue and take action. This may contribute to more funding for aid programs which can assist implementing programs to provide greater access to facilities in schools for handwashing in low-income countries.

Dimension 1: Environmental sustainability can mean that the effects of climate change are mitigated through a reduction in greenhouse gases. This can result in a decrease in temperatures and subsequent bushfires, resulting in a reduction in injury due to bushfires, promoting physical health and wellbeing, globally.

Dimension 2: Environmental sustainability can mean the food sources in the environment are used in a way that can be maintained into the future. Therefore, people around the world are less likely to worry about whether the planet will run out of food, decreasing stress and anxiety levels and promoting mental health and wellbeing globally.

WHO Objective: Rapidly detect and sustain an effective response to all health emergencies. This is reflected in the source above as the outbreak of cholera, would be considered a health emergency, as it’s reported in all of the countries provinces and there are more than ‘27055 suspected cholera cases’ therefore it’s impacting a large amount of people and a health emergency. The provision of vaccines for the disease could be considered as an effective response to the disease outbreak, as more than 2.1 million Zimbabweans received vaccines, thus it was effective response in tackling the health emergency.

Through vaccinating 2.1 million people in Zimbabwe, this has reduced the transmission of cholera by increasing resistance to the disease and promoting immune system response to fight the disease. This will therefore reduce deaths from cholera, which will then increase the HDI indicator ‘life expectancy at birth’, contributing to an increase in HDI in Zimbabwe.

People could donate to a non-government organisation that works in low-income countries to address violence against women and take individual action, as this will increase the funds available to this non-government organisation (NGO). This means the NGO may be better able to implement education programs for women so they can get an education, decreasing the risk of being forced into marriage and being physically abused, preventing violence.

Dimension 1: The prevention of violence against women and girls could help reduce the risk of injuries or harm occurring, such as female genital mutilation. This can help reduce the risk of contracting infectious diseases such as hepatitis, helping promote the functioning of the body and its systems. This would therefore promote their physical health and wellbeing.

Dimension 2: The prevention of violence against women and girls can also mean women and girls are safe enough to attend school or work, where they can socialise with others and develop supportive networks of friends, helping to promote their social health and wellbeing.

Climate change refers to the long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns due to increased carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change can increase extreme weather events, such as floods, which submerged a third of Pakistan in 2022. Floods can contaminate water sources with bacteria and viruses, which if consumed can increase the risk of cholera therefore the body and its systems are not functioning adequately, negatively impacting physical health and wellbeing (HWB).

Similarly, climate change can increase changing weather events, such as heavy rainfall in Pakistan, which can ruin agricultural crops, increasing stress and anxiety for farmers as they are unable to sell sufficient amount of crops, increasing financial burden [and] negatively impacting mental HWB in Pakistan.

Additionally climate change can reduce children's ability in Pakistan to access education due to flooding and heatwaves. Lower levels of education can reduce the ability for children in Pakistan to increase their health literacy and socialise with other children. This can negatively impact their ability to participate in effective communication with others, negatively impacting social HWB in Pakistan.

End extreme poverty – This aims to eliminate extreme poverty, which is those living on less than ＄1.90 US per day. Millions of people still live in extreme poverty, decreasing their ability to afford resources, such as shelter, adequate food and safe water, hence contributing to a significant number of preventable deaths worldwide. Thus this objective is important as it will assist individuals in affording resources they need for a decent standard of living and assist them to lead a long and healthy life.

An aspect of SGD 13 is strengthening the resilience of countries to respond to and adapt to climate related hazards such as natural disasters. For example, by investing in building flood walls to protect the impact of flooding on communities, schools are less likely to be destroyed. This can mean children are able to go to school to gain knowledge and develop to their full potential by increasing numeracy and literacy skills. It also allows them to lead creative lives according to their interests by participating in school activities, such as art or sports, promoting human development.

Achieving SDG 4 would involve ensuring all children have basic literacy and numeracy skills. By helping to reduce school dropouts in Pakistan means children are more likely to be able to read health information around protecting themselves from infectious diseases, like waterborne diseases, thus reducing the chance they will drink unsafe water if they understand risks, thus helping to end epidemics of communicable diseases like malaria and waterborne disease, in turn achieving SDG 3.

Additionally achieving SDG 4 would involve ensuring girls have equal access to education as boys which would be achieved by ensuring girls in Pakistan can continue accessing education despite floods, thus reducing the chance they are forced into child marriage, where they have babies before their body is biologically ready, thus reducing maternal mortality rates, in turn achieving SDG 3.

1. ‘Fight inequality and injustice’ is important as the inequalities around the world cause conflict, lack of rights in certain communities, such as LGBTQ and lack of power in women due to inequalities, they must be addressed.

2. ‘Tackle climate change’ is important as rising sea levels are causing environmental issues, changing weather patterns can result in lack of crops, and must be addressed to save the environment for the future.

Social sustainability relates to creating equitable societies that meet the needs of all citizens and can be maintained indefinitely. Some factors include levels of employment and education etc.

Social sustainability means that gender equality can be achieved and maintained. Hence, girls are more likely to be able to gain an education and women can go to work and earn an adequate amount of income. This can end extreme poverty.