The Lancet
Sep 19, 2015 Volume 386 Number 9999 p1109-1210 e9-e14
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

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Editorial
Women are the key to sustainable development
The Lancet
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00248-2
Summary
On Sept 25–27, UN member states will meet at the UN General Assembly in New York to adopt a new roadmap—17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—for progress to 2030. Goal 3 is dedicated to health and consists of nine main targets, including reductions in maternal and child mortality, substance misuse, and road traffic accidents. However, many other goals—eg, water and sanitation, poverty reduction, and climate change—are also health related. How can this ambitious agenda be achieved? A Lancet Commission published in today’s issue has an answer: ensure women are healthy and have equity in all aspects of life.

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Comment
A Lancet Commission on sexual and reproductive health and rights: going beyond the Sustainable Development Goals
Ann Starrs
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00250-0

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Comment
Promoting women’s health for sustainable development
Jim Yong Kim, Timothy Evans
Published Online: 04 June 2015
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60942-4
Summary
As the world reflects on the progress made in the two decades since the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action1 and the Beijing Platform of Action2 and prepares to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals, the report of the Lancet Commission on Women and Health3 is a powerful reminder that much work remains to be done. The Commission’s extensive review of the evidence and compelling synthesis should serve as an important reference point for policy makers and practitioners as they begin to implement the post-2015 development agenda.

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Comment
Valuing the health and contribution of women is central to global development
Melinda Gates
Published Online: 04 June 2015
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60940-0
Summary
During my mother’s four pregnancies, her health was viewed as a way to improve the wellbeing of her children. Between the time that my mother had her children and I had mine, more attention was paid to the health of women themselves—and particularly their survival. This concern with maternal health and survival, especially for women in low-income countries, led to the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative in 1987, the first global effort to focus the world’s attention on maternal health. Since then, women’s health has expanded to encompass sexual and reproductive health and, more recently, the complex interplay of factors throughout the life course, which are explored in the Lancet Commission on Women and Health.

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The Lancet Commissions
Women and Health: the key for sustainable development
Dr Ana Langer, MD, Afaf Meleis, PhD, Felicia M Knaul, PhD, Rifat Atun, MBBS, Meltem Aran, PhD, Héctor Arreola-Ornelas, MS, Zulfiqar A Bhutta, PhD, Agnes Binagwaho, MMed [Ped], Ruth Bonita, PhD, Jacquelyn M Caglia, MPH, Mariam Claeson, MD, Justine Davies, MD, France A Donnay, MD, Jewel M Gausman, MHS, Caroline Glickman, MIM, Annie D Kearns, MS, Tamil Kendall, PhD, Rafael Lozano, MD, Naomi Seboni, PhD, Gita Sen, PhD, Siriorn Sindhu, DNSc, Miriam Temin, MS, Julio Frenk, MD
Published Online: 04 June 2015
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60497-4
Summary
Girls’ and women’s health is in transition and, although some aspects of it have improved substantially in the past few decades, there are still important unmet needs. Population ageing and transformations in the social determinants of health have increased the coexistence of disease burdens related to reproductive health, nutrition, and infections, and the emerging epidemic of chronic and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Simultaneously, worldwide priorities in women’s health have themselves been changing from a narrow focus on maternal and child health to the broader framework of sexual and reproductive health and to the encompassing concept of women’s health, which is founded on a life-course approach.