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In my view, Africa stands to benefit the most from implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda. Four realities support this view.The first is poverty. Nothing holds health development back in this region so much as the firm grip of poverty. This is poverty that undermines the health of populations, and poverty that cripples the performance of health systems.Every single regional strategy or implementation plan before this committee cites lack of resources and weak health systems as the biggest barriers to progress.As with the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals], the alleviation of poverty is an overarching SDG objective, but with a difference. As an integrated and interactive agenda, the SDGs aim to tackle poverty, not superficially through hand-outs, but fundamentally, by addressing its root causes. For example, the SDGs include a target for doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers. Think of what this can do in a region where nearly 70 per cent of the food supply is produced by smallholder farmers. Think of the food security needed to cope with the continent’s weather extremes of drought and floods that are already increasing as a result of climate change.Second, the SDG agenda, with its emphasis on policies that promote sustainable improvements and make the fair distribution of benefits an explicit objective, provides a foundation for more effective aid.This region has suffered disproportionately from ineffective aid, often focused on a single problem or disease, which encouraged fragmentation, duplication, high transaction costs, the creation of parallel procurement and distribution systems, and a heavy reporting burden on ministries of health. The new emphasis on sustainability encourages the channelling of assistance in ways that build fundamental capacities. In my experience, most countries want capacity, not charity.Third, the SDGs formally embrace the necessity of multisectoral collaboration. What they do especially well is to recognize that today’s complex health challenges can no longer be addressed by the health sector acting alone.Curbing the rise of antimicrobial resistance requires policy support from agriculture. Abundant evidence shows that educated mothers have the healthiest families. Access to modern energy fuels economic growth, but it also reduces millions of deaths from chronic lung disease associated with indoor air pollution.Finally, the inclusion of a target for reaching universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, gives health the power to build fair, stable, and cohesive societies while also furthering the overarching objective of ending poverty. Ensuring that all people receive essential health care without risking financial hardship can have a significant impact on poverty. WHO estimates that “ THINK OF THE FOOD SECURITY NEEDED TO COPE WITH THE CONTINENT’S WEATHER EXTREMES OF DROUGHT AND FLOODS THAT ARE ALREADY INCREASING AS A RESULT OF CLIMATE CHANGE”DR MARGARET CHAN, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATIONCAPACITY BUILDING TO IMPROVE HEALTH SECURITY IN AFRICA076 HEALTH