Health sector engagement on the implementation of SDGs in Turkey

Abstract

Abstract Turkey is a country with major environmental and climate threats, so implementing the SDGs offers significant potential to improve people's health and well-being. The Turkish government aims to take a voluntary approach to SDGs. In Turkey's 2019 report, SDG-3 on Good Health and Well-being, which is coordinated by the Ministry of Health, was promoted as one of the goals with the most progress. Non-communicable diseases (NCD) have become the main cause of death; in Turkey, the share of NCDs in total disease burden was 69.7% in 2002, and rose to 82% in 2017. In the light of the latest Lancet findings, it is clear that the NCDs burden will increase further with climate change, thus the link between health and climate should be strengthened in SDG implementation. Turkey's latest Climate Change Action Plan 2011-2023 offers an opportunity for the health sector to do so (and thus also advancing the implementation of SDG-13). To strengthen the Turkish health sector's capacity to engage on the implementation of SDGs and other relevant climate and environment policies, HEAL, HASUDER (the Association Of Public Health Specialists) and Kocaeli University, Department of Public Health launched a network in April 2020, called “Health Collaboration on Climate Change and Environment Project (CISIP)”. The project, which is financed by the EU, will organise a range of webinars, trainings, materials and facilitate exchanges for better evidence-based and health promoting policy-making. So far, these three organisations/institutions have engaged with more than 30+ different health organisations that are keen to work on the environment, climate and health intersections. The presentation will share some lessons learnt from recent CISIP activities and discuss the opportunities and challenges for the implementation of SDGs 3 and 13 in Turkey.