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Thanks Barbara - some great points. Without getting into the debate on Australian budgets, your blog also raises the issue of whether vertical programmes strengthen immunization / health systems or not. There is rhetoric and wording in polio, measles & rubella programme plans in support of strengthening immunization systems. In reality (as the agenda is driven by CDC and a disease control paradigm) budgets do not reflect this rhetoric and activities are often limited to surveillance & laboratory strengthening, and session monitoring, often not including service delivery of other routine vaccines or other MNCH interventions. Over the years, donors have paid for a massive set of assets to delivery polio vaccine, in campaign mode, to the world's children. Debate rages on whether this strengthened or weakened health systems.However the polio related assets (and lessons learned) have the potential to sustainably address inequities by delivering more than polio, measles or rubella vaccines. 20% of the world's children do not receive DTP3 vaccine and 40% remain not fully vaccinated.) The polio Independent Monitoring Board has a role to play in stimulating this thinking.

Thanks for the insights Graeme! The article is receiving positive response from social media in PNG. Regards Bal

Thanks Belinda, Re. The emergence of emergency care: You may like to see the ACEM International Emergency Medicine Network News of September 2015: https://www.acem.org.au/getattachment/f58d278a-6b1a-493e-b929-3e24d535bcb6/IEMNET-News-Vol-1-Issue-1-(1).aspx Regards, Chris Curry

Allow me to correct the record on a statement in the blog by Barbara McPake and Peter Annear on polio eradication and routine immunisation, posted on DevPolicy today. The authors state that “the additional commitment to polio eradication was thus reduced from $80 million to $36 million.” In fact Foreign Minister Bishop’s 1 June announcement committed funding for polio eradication and routine immunisation. An additional $36 million in funding is being provided to the World Bank to help strengthen routine immunisation in our region. This is being delivered as part of the Minister’s commitment. In total, therefore, $92 million of the Government’s $100 million commitment will be delivered. I also note that Nigeria was declared polio-free on 25 September this year, meaning that now only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain polio endemic. The world is making great progress towards polio eradication. Bill Costello Assistant Secretary Health and Water Branch DFAT

This is an argument against strategy. Life may be just one damn thing after another but it can only help to aim to achieve more than small increments.

There's a lot wrong with the SDGs but this article misses the biggest concerns. The SDGs don't set up new obligations for states, they are supposed to focus on how to meet existing obligations. They claim they will 'transform' the world in light of the deepening inequalities between and within countries, climate change and the death of democracy. That requires changes to the deeply inequitable global finance, trade and investment rules that ensure wealth is extracted from the Global South and channeled to a tiny minority, mostly in the the Global North. Essentially the problem with the SDGs is that they don't address wealth and neo-liberalism. If the world continues with the growth model we need to consume 175 times our current rate to lift everyone out of poverty and the meager rate of $5 per day. Instead the SDGs refer to expanded partnerships with the private sector - more of the same. (No surprises that Ambassador Ashe who presided over consultations for the SDGs as President of the GA was arrested this week on corruption charges after allegedly taking bribes to promote public-private partnerships). The week following the UN General Assembly when the goals were adopted, 12 of the member states met in the US to finalise the TPP. Unlike the SDGs the TPP is enforceable and has remedies (for corporations). The obligations the TPP establishes directly contravene the stated aims of the SDGs.

Hello, Invite everyone to Timor a real place and I hope real thing's happen for everyone in Timor Leste that will make a reality of real people.

Thanks Terence, we are likely in furious but general agreement! I don't know enough in-depth about each goal to comment, but in the area which I've had some international experience, malnutrition and food insecurity, the research has been sustained in the MDG period, the evidence is in, the solutions are well known, and there are country experiences where we have seen incredible gains, from which the lessons learned need only mobilised resources and political will to see them replicated. I say "only", and herein is the challenge. (see <a href="http://globalnutritionreport.org/2015/10/02/the-most-important-report-on-the-global-nutrition-crisis/" rel="nofollow">here</a>)

I'm with Bono on this. Many of the goals and targets are interlocking - progress in one area (especially financing) will open the way for progress in other areas.

Hi Michael, Good point, and sort of taken. But -- if we're being honest with ourselves amidst the complex world of development -- we have to admit that for many of the goals, in many country contexts we don't know what action, and while we know resources help, we don't know how to target them. Terence

Hi Alex, The llama came close to winning me over too. But I can't help but feel that, unless something has happened with Michelle Bachelet and the UN that I am unaware of, the poor creature is a little out of context 🙂 Terence

Animals and ads aside - there is no plan. I was in NY for the launch and it was quite a week, with the convergence of the Papal visit, the SDG launch and Donald Trump's presidential campaign! The excitement was palpable on all counts. But speaking as someone who has been closely involved in the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, it was a bitter sweet moment as we launched the new Global Strategy, because we know that the SDGs will diffuse this agenda (and no doubt other agendas) and we will have to redouble our efforts to reach the most vulnerable and hardest to reach. But, at least, we are working on a plan!!! A footnote from Julie Bishop at the USAID signature event on Partnerships for Poverty - its all about the changing role of the state, leveraging the private sector, the transformative nature of the internet and innovative partnerships. Not just from Julie Bishop - that was the message coming out in all the events I attended.