I have found the past decade deeply challenging and ultimately encouraging in my work to help realise the ambitious eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2000. Much of this work has focused intensively on public health. Several of the MDGs are directly about health—reduced undernutrition, child and maternal survival, and control of pandemic diseases—while other goals depend on improved public health for their fulfilment—reduced poverty, gender equality, school completion, environmental sustainability.
