Comprehensive Targets of SDG 3 for Global Health

Good health is the foundation on which every other development ambition rests. A child who stays alive, a mother who survives childbirth, a worker free from crippling disease, and a family protected from catastrophic medical bills – these are not just moral wins but economic ones. That is precisely why the United Nations placed health at the centre of its 2030 Agenda through Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. The goal is expansive, measurable, and time-bound, built around thirteen specific targets that together attempt to cover the full spectrum of human health – from the first cry of a newborn to the last years of an elderly adult.

Understanding the architecture of SDG 3 🔗

SDG 3 is not a single ambition but a cluster of thirteen targets tracked through 28 indicators. The first nine targets are outcome targets that address specific health challenges, while the remaining four (numbered 3.a to 3.d) are means-of-implementation targets that deal with tobacco control, medicines and vaccine research, health workforce, and emergency preparedness. The World Health Organization is the principal custodian agency, responsible for monitoring 20 of the 27 indicators.

What makes SDG 3 distinctive compared to its predecessor – the Millennium Development Goals – is its refusal to separate physical health from mental health, or communicable diseases from non-communicable ones. It treats health as indivisible. Let us walk through what each target promises and why each one matters.

Protecting mothers and children 🔗

Target 3.1: Reducing maternal mortality 🔗

The first target aims to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. Progress has been uneven. The global maternal mortality ratio only marginally declined from 227 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 223 in 2020, and sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia together accounted for roughly 87 per cent of the estimated global maternal deaths. Indian data shows maternal mortality has dropped to 97 per 100,000 live births, and eight states, including Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have already met the 2030 target of 70.

Target 3.2: Ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under five 🔗

This target commits countries to reduce neonatal mortality to at most 12 per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality to at most 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030. Under-five deaths reached a historic low of 4.9 million in 2022, down from 9.9 million in 2000. India’s under-five mortality rate has fallen sharply, and over 93 per cent of children aged 9-11 months are now fully immunized, a significant driver of this improvement.

Fighting epidemics and diseases 🔗

Target 3.3: Ending epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases 🔗

By 2030, the world is expected to end the epidemics of AIDS, TB, malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and to combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases, and other communicable diseases. Progress is mixed. HIV infections in 2022 were 27 per cent lower than in 2015, yet TB diagnoses reached 7.5 million that year – the highest since 1995 – and malaria cases climbed to 249 million globally, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Tuberculosis remains a particularly stubborn challenge for India, which still carries the world’s highest TB burden.

Target 3.4: Reducing premature deaths from non-communicable diseases and promoting mental health 🔗

Target 3.4 commits nations to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory illness by one-third by 2030, while also promoting mental health and well-being. NCDs killed over 43 million people in 2021, with roughly 18 million of those deaths classified as premature, and 82 per cent of these premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Mental health carries a parallel weight: mental health conditions affected nearly one billion people worldwide in 2019, with rates of anxiety and depression rising by 25 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic. In India, NCDs now account for a majority of all deaths, making this target especially critical.

Target 3.5: Preventing and treating substance abuse 🔗

This target calls for strengthening the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and the harmful use of alcohol. Globally, only about 1 in 11 people with substance use disorders received related treatment in 2022. The indicator tracks both coverage of treatment and per capita alcohol consumption among people aged 15 and above.

Road safety, reproductive health, and universal coverage 🔗

Target 3.6: Halving global deaths from road traffic accidents 🔗

This target originally aimed to halve global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020. Since that deadline has already passed without success, the target has effectively been rolled forward under the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, which seeks the same 50 per cent reduction by 2030. This is particularly relevant for India, which consistently reports among the highest absolute numbers of road fatalities in the world.

Target 3.7: Universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare 🔗

By 2030, countries are expected to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes. The full target text emphasizes not just access but integration into national programmes, which matters greatly in contexts where stigma or patchy infrastructure block women from services.

Target 3.8: Achieving universal health coverage 🔗

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) sits at the heart of SDG 3. It asks governments to achieve UHC, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential healthcare services, and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all. Universal Health Coverage is now the critical yardstick for countries to measure and track progress toward the SDGs, and it is often described as an overarching target that supports the achievement of the other nine outcome targets. India’s flagship Ayushman Bharat programme, which combines health and wellness centres with the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana insurance scheme, is the country’s most visible UHC effort.

Target 3.9: Reducing deaths from pollution and hazardous chemicals 🔗

By 2030, countries are expected to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution. India’s air pollution crisis – particularly the seasonal smog that blankets northern cities – places this target at the intersection of health and environmental policy. Progress on this target cannot be achieved by the health ministry alone; it requires industrial regulation, clean-energy transition, and urban planning.

The means-of-implementation targets 🔗

Target 3.a: Tobacco control 🔗

This target focuses on strengthening the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate. India, as a party to the convention, has introduced pictorial warnings, higher taxation on cigarettes, and bans on advertising, though enforcement remains uneven, especially for smokeless tobacco and beedis.

Target 3.b: Research and development for affordable medicines and vaccines 🔗

Target 3.b commits countries to support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for communicable and non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, and to provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines. A review in 2017 noted that as little as one per cent of all funding for health research and development is allocated to diseases predominantly affecting developing countries. India, with its large generic medicines industry, plays a unique role here – Indian manufacturers supply a significant share of affordable vaccines and antiretrovirals used globally.

Target 3.c: Health workforce in developing countries 🔗

This target calls for substantially increasing health financing and the recruitment, training, development and retention of health workers, especially in the least developed countries. Health worker density is a stubborn challenge: rural India continues to face severe shortages of specialists, and retention in remote postings remains a persistent policy headache.

Target 3.d: Strengthening emergency preparedness 🔗

The final target asks all countries to strengthen their capacity for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed just how fragile this capacity was even in well-resourced countries. Post-pandemic reforms in surveillance, lab capacity, and inter-governmental coordination are a direct response to this target.

India’s progress: encouraging but uneven 🔗

India’s SDG 3 score rose from 52 in 2018 to 77 in 2023, as per the NITI Aayog SDG Index. Child immunization crossed 93 per cent, institutional deliveries climbed above 97 per cent, and tuberculosis case notification reached 87 per cent nationally. Yet the same assessments flag deep concerns about malnutrition, the rising burden of NCDs, mental health coverage, and regional disparities. SDG 3 is projected to be achieved by India by 2026-27 based on current trajectories, though critical gaps persist in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, and Assam.

Where the world stands with five years left 🔗

Despite remarkable scientific advances, the global outlook is sobering. None of the SDG 3 targets have been achieved, none are on track under current trends, and over half of the world’s population cannot obtain essential health services. Financing remains a persistent constraint: governments in many countries have reduced health spending in the years following the pandemic, and 3.3 billion people live in countries where more is spent on debt-interest payments than on health or education. The next five years will test whether the world can convert declarations into delivery.

What do you think? Looking at the thirteen targets under SDG 3, which one do you believe deserves the greatest priority investment in India over the next five years – and why? Do you think universal health coverage alone can deliver on the promise of healthy lives, or are social determinants like pollution, nutrition and education equally essential to the health agenda?

References

1. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goal_3
3. https://www.business-standard.com/health/india-sdg-3-health-progress-maternal-child-mortality-ncd-malnutrition-2030-125062400791_1.html
4. https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/2025HLPF_EGM_concept_note_SDG%203_FINAL.pdf
5. https://www.niti.gov.in/competitive-federalism/sdg/Goal-3-Ensure-healthy-lives-and-promote-well-being-for-all-at-all-ages
6. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/sdg-target-3_4-noncommunicable-diseases-and-mental-health
7. https://www.who.int/europe/about-us/our-work/sustainable-development-goals/targets-of-sustainable-development-goal-3
8. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6319280/
9. https://gfst.in/mapping-indias-sdg-progress/