September 2017: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has published a report that pairs case study stories with data for 18 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets that are fundamental to people’s health and well-being. The Foundation intends to publish this report annually until 2030, in order to “accelerate progress in the fight against poverty by helping to diagnose urgent problems, identify promising solutions, measure and interpret key results, and spread best practices.”

The case studies focus on aspects of health, including: child mortality, including the role that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (now Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance) has played in vaccinating 600 million children since 2000; maternal mortality and a Health Extension Program in Ethiopia; successful family planning programs in Senegal; the roles that Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, have played in addressing HIV and the need to continue to identify and promote best prevention practices; and efforts in Peru to address stunting — children who are short for their age by a specified amount. Additional case studies address efforts in India to make it simpler and more secure for poor people to do business with banks and the link between financial inclusion and women’s empowerment.

The report makes projections to 2030 if we “progress” or “regress” from current trends.

The report includes global data for each of the issues presented in the case studies, and includes projections to 2030 if we “progress” or “regress” from current trends. The data indicate that:

• the proportion of population below the international poverty line is expected to drop from 9% in 2016 to 6% in 2030, although this figure is higher than the 0% target in the SDGs;
• if we progress on stunting, the prevalence of stunting among children under age 5 could drop from the current level of 26% to 18%, although this figure is higher than the SDG target of 14%;
• if we progress, the rate of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births could drop from 179 to 104, although the SDG target is 70;
• if we progress, the number of under-five deaths per 1,000 live births could drop from 38 to 19, with the target of bringing this number at least as low as 25, but preferably to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under age five; and
• on the target to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases, based on current trends, the number of new cases of HIV per 1,000 people is expected to only drop from 0.25 to 0.21.

Data on current and expected trends for addressing tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, family planning, universal health coverage (UHC), smoking, vaccines, sanitation, and financial services for the poor are also provided. The report indicates that insufficient data exist for making similar projections with regard to targets related to education, gender and agriculture. [Publication: The Stories Behind the Data]