SDG 3 – Historical Perspectives on Health and Well-Being as International Policy Goals

This chapter discusses the historical context of SDG 3, the goal of health and well-being for all. Its 13 targets are wide-ranging, spanning curative and preventive medicine, physical and mental health, infectious and non-communicable diseases, and universal health coverage. We therefore delimit our discussion to the history of health improvement as an object of international policy, with a temporal focus on the twentieth century, albeit with backward glances. The first main section provides an outline history of the management of infectious diseases and health system building, moving from colonial health policies to early cross-national conferences, then to the permanent international organizations established by states or philanthropists. Detailed sections then cover maternal and child health, including programs addressing reproduction; non-communicable diseases related to human behaviors such as consumption habits and road safety; and universal health coverage. We delineate four main factors of change through time: political economy in a world of unequal power distributions; the growth of transnational expertise and advocacy; the impetus of humanitarianism and voluntary action; and the ideal of health as a human right. We close with reflections on whether the health SDG can indeed be fulfilled “leaving no one behind.”