The Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) encapsulate some of the most serious challenges to population health of the 20th century – child and maternal mortality, infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The health-related MDGs have been instrumental in mobilizing senior decision makers in countries and within agencies and development partners around a common framework for health development. This framework is centered on the health needs of the large proportion of people in the world who are deprived and poor. The governments of Botswana and Sweden have expressed interest in ensuring Member State leadership and involvement in the health consultation; they will work with WHO and UNICEF in preparing and implementing the thematic consultation on health.

1.) To stimulate wide ranging discussion at global, regional and country levels, on progress made and lessons learnt from the present MDGs relating to health;

2.) To discuss and develop a shared understanding – among Member States, UN agencies, civil society and others – on the positioning of health in the post 2015 development framework;

3.) To propose health goals and related targets and indicators for the post-2015 development agenda, as well as approaches for implementation, measurement and monitoring.

1.) Background Papers – Background papers will be commissioned on issues relevant to key questions. This includes the “think piece” prepared by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNAIDS (which can be found below). The consultation process will also attempt to benefit from large amount of existing papers and knowledge that could inform the place of health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. All constituencies and stakeholders will be invited to submit existing or new material as background papers to inform discussions and contribute to a final outcome document resulting from global thematic consultation.

2.) Web-based Consultation – This is an opportunity for a multitude of voices to be heard, including from governments, the UN system, civil society stakeholders, academia, media, national and international NGOs, and the private sector. The UN, in collaboration with civil society, has launched a platform, www.worldwewant2015.org, for online discussions with different groups and constituencies. In addition, this very site, launched by PAHO, also encourages active discussion about the post-2015 agenda specifically relating to issues in the Americas.

3.) Consultation Meetings – several meetings including one for Member State representatives hosted by WHO, one of civil society organizations to bring together key international health NGOs and NGO coalition representatives, one of private sector partners to discuss private sector contributions, one of representatives of academic and research institutions, a high-level leadership meeting of 40 high-level participants to discuss the synthesized report of the consultation process, as well as other global meetings that focus on the post-2015 agenda – all results, synthesized reports will be used to determine how health will be incorporated into the new development framework.

Source: “Health in the Post 2015 Development Agenda – Outline Proposed Process for Global Thematic Consultation on Health” (WHO, UNICEF) Oct 2012 – WorldWeWant2015.org”