Epidemiology and Public Health: A joint Approach to Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
In 2000 the United Nations named eight official development goals (the Millennium Development Goals) to be reached worldwide by 2015, of which three directly concerned health. Programs to reach these goals were supported by all governments and the most important international financing and development agencies. In 2010 the UN initiated a process leading to a new set of goals for the post-2015 period. After initial proposals did not include health in its broad understanding, the IEA issued a Position Paper on this subject, focusing on life expectancies (www.worldwewant2015.org/node/292903), and the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) decided to support it. The purpose of this joint session of IEA and WFPHA is to inform about the situation, to analyze priority targets within the proposed goals, and to discuss technical issues such as measurement of vital and health data in low income populations.