Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda for Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

The paper discusses the key health challenges in the post-2015 development agenda for Asia and the Pacific, a highly populated, diverse region of countries with different health needs and priorities. However, common to most countries are the emerging health challenges of an aging population, increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, financing and strengthening health systems to ensure basic services, climate change, population mobility, rapid economic growth, and environmental pollution. At the same time, the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals is still very much relevant for Asia and the Pacific—especially in low- and middle-income countries where child and maternal mortality goals have not been achieved. Drawing on the regional, thematic, and subregional consultations and on expert views in and outside of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), this paper argues that the post-2015 development agenda needs to address health in a more systematic way in one global goal, and in more specific national goals that focus on country-specific health needs in and outside the health sector. The paper also provides entry points for ADB to support a post-2015 health agenda in its developing member countries, and highlights the importance of strengthening regional corporation and integration to tackle emerging health challenges.