The Global Burden of Disease Study, the first global analysis that assesses the United Nations’ health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 188 countries, has ranked Pakistan at 149.
Launched at a special event at the UN General Assembly in New York and published in The Lancet, the analysis assesses countries by creating an overall index score on a scale of zero to 100. Pakistan shares the score of 38 with Bangladesh and Mauritania – six places behind India and way behind Iran.
“These analyses are critically important for Pakistan, where limited data make the transition from MDGs to the SDGs even more challenging. These data allow the country to set a baseline based on recent performance and also set a trajectory for achieving the health and health-related SDGs,” said Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, Founding Director of the Aga Khan University’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, and co-author of the study.
The analysis shows that expanded health coverage, greater access to family planning, and fewer deaths of newborns and children under the age of five are among several health improvements contributing to progress toward achieving SDGs. However, hepatitis B, childhood obesity, violence and alcohol consumption have worsened.
Iceland ranks the first at 85 with the United Kingdom and Canada among the top 10 at 82 and 81 respectively. With a score of 26, Afghanistan is among the bottom 10; the Central African Republic being the lowest at 20.
Kenya’s SDG index score increased between 2000 and 2015, from 33 to 40. The prevalence of childhood stunting there dropped as a percentage of the population from 39 per cent in 2000 to 26 per cent in 2015. One potential driver of the decrease in stunting in the country is the concurrent increase in access to health services. In 2015, 70 per cent of Kenyans who needed an essential health intervention received it, in contrast to just 32 per cent in 2000.
To see how nations compare to others, countries were divided into five categories, based on a combination of education, fertility and income per capita. This new categorization goes beyond the historical “developed” vs. “developing” or economic divisions based solely on income.
