ESMO welcomes the 2023 Political Declaration on SDGs, adopted during the United Nations SDG Summit on 18-19 September 2023 in New York, which outlines a pathway to propel the achievement of the SDGs by 2030.
Importantly, the Political Declaration includes commitments to strengthen health systems and achieve universal health coverage, and to address gaps in preventing, preparing for, and responding to current and future pandemics and health emergencies. ESMO has consistently called for such commitments to ensure that countries accelerate their efforts towards equitable cancer care so that no cancer patient is left behind.
The 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) notes that health-related milestones such as “establishing universal health coverage (UHC) and ramping up investment in primary healthcare in lower and middle-income countries (LMICs)” is within scope through transformative policymaking, scaled-up investment, and the deployment of existing technologies.
As an estimated 1 in 5 people will develop cancer over their life course, ESMO will continue to work with policy makers to advocate for equitable cancer care with a specific focus on achieving health-related SDG targets 3.4, 'reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases' and 3.8, 'universal health coverage', while making sure that public health concerns are equally heard and addressed across other SDGs, because effective actions require unifying and cross-sectoral solutions.