There are less than 850 days remaining until the current MDGs expire. This past week at the UN General Assembly, member states gathered together to discuss progress on the MDGs to date and looked forward to the post-2015 development agenda. They renewed their commitment to achieve the MDGs by the deadline and also signed on to host a High-Level Summit in September of 2015.

This Summit will serve as the venue to adopt the new post-2015 development agenda, which will build upon the current MDGs, incorporating the unfinished goals, and including new challenges that have come up since 2000. Given that tobacco is a barrier to development, we will be working hard to ensure that the tobacco epidemic and NCDs are adequately addressed.

The post-2015 development agenda will blend the important issues of poverty eradication and sustainable development into a single framework and set of goals. These goals will be universal and applicable to all countries while accounting for varying national situations and priorities.

We would like to express our appreciation to Palau for their statement during the general debate. The President specifically pointed out that tobacco control was excluded from the MDGs and that it has a direct impact on NCDs. He emphasized that we must target tobacco separately. We’d also like to give a shout out to Russia and New Zealand for mentioning the importance of addressing NCDs in their statements.

The reality is that we have a lot of work to do in the global health community. Health was not mentioned nearly as much as it should have been considering its incredible impact on every area of sustainable development and poverty. In order to get NCDs and tobacco control on the radar of decision makers, we need to work together with other health groups to promote the overall health goals.

For more information on the conclusions of the special event on MDGs check out the outcome document.

Also, check out our leaflet on tobacco and sustainable development.

We hope our UN General Assembly updates kept you informed. Stay tuned for more Real Talk Tobacco episodes.