Building on the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Sustainable Development Goals are the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, billed by the UN as “An Agenda of unprecedented scope and significance.” The seventeen ambitious goals, which are intended to be reached by 2030, are conceived as integrated, indivisible, and as balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. They are organized around five core pillars:
• People: ending poverty and hunger and ensuring that all human beings can lead fulfilling lives in a healthy and dignified environment.
• Planet: protecting the environment while ensuring sustainable use and management of natural resources.
• Prosperity: ensuring environmentally sustainable economic growth, mutual prosperity, and decent work for all.
• Peace: building societies that are peaceful, just and inclusive, and in which human rights and gender equality are respected.
• Partnership: strengthening global solidarity to address inequalities within and between countries, by focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable.
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This Research Topic addresses third Sustainable Development Goal, which is to “ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.” Progress toward this goal is measured by a number of individual targets and indicators.
As highlighted in the UN’s most recent SDG progress report, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted progress toward this goal. Prior to the pandemic there had been improvements in maternal & child health, immunization coverage, suicide rates, and reductions in the incidence of communicable diseases and mortality rates from non-communicable diseases. The pandemic threatens to reverse or stall much of this progress. As of June 2021, the global death toll from COVID-19 stood at 3.7 million, with manifold wider ramifications of the disease. Ninety per cent of countries are still reporting one or more disruptions to essential health services, and available data indicates that the pandemic has shortened life expectancy. The pandemic has also severely impacted mental health and increased waiting times for elective health services. At the same time, it has exacerbated inequalities at the national and international levels, including access to vaccines. In emerging from the pandemic and mitigating its effects, the UN has placed emphasis on expanding universal health coverage and multisectoral coordination for health emergency preparedness, as well as improving demographic and epidemiological data.
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This Research Topic will address the third sustainable development goal from an education-specific perspective. Themes welcome may address, but are not limited to:
• Mental health support for students, teachers, educational practitioners, and school/ university staff
• Back to in-person teaching/ learning: overcoming fears of COVID-19 and future pandemics
• Physical education practices and student access to sports/ gyms
• Mindfulness practice and teaching
• Student and teacher suicide
• Impact of education in society wellbeing
• Wellness and housing insecurities in higher, postsecondary, and/or tertiary education
• Tensions and psychological challenges for individuals that inform design of appropriate health and well-being initiatives by measuring student learning
Given the setbacks to health and wellbeing across the world from the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s edition of the Research Topic will focus particularly on the challenges and complexities of ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
Building on the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Sustainable Development Goals are the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, billed by the UN as “An Agenda of unprecedented scope and significance.” The seventeen ambitious goals, which are intended to be reached by 2030, are conceived as integrated, indivisible, and as balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. They are organized around five core pillars:
• People: ending poverty and hunger and ensuring that all human beings can lead fulfilling lives in a healthy and dignified environment.
• Planet: protecting the environment while ensuring sustainable use and management of natural resources.
• Prosperity: ensuring environmentally sustainable economic growth, mutual prosperity, and decent work for all.
• Peace: building societies that are peaceful, just and inclusive, and in which human rights and gender equality are respected.
• Partnership: strengthening global solidarity to address inequalities within and between countries, by focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable.
*
This Research Topic addresses third Sustainable Development Goal, which is to “ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.” Progress toward this goal is measured by a number of individual targets and indicators.
As highlighted in the UN’s most recent SDG progress report, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted progress toward this goal. Prior to the pandemic there had been improvements in maternal & child health, immunization coverage, suicide rates, and reductions in the incidence of communicable diseases and mortality rates from non-communicable diseases. The pandemic threatens to reverse or stall much of this progress. As of June 2021, the global death toll from COVID-19 stood at 3.7 million, with manifold wider ramifications of the disease. Ninety per cent of countries are still reporting one or more disruptions to essential health services, and available data indicates that the pandemic has shortened life expectancy. The pandemic has also severely impacted mental health and increased waiting times for elective health services. At the same time, it has exacerbated inequalities at the national and international levels, including access to vaccines. In emerging from the pandemic and mitigating its effects, the UN has placed emphasis on expanding universal health coverage and multisectoral coordination for health emergency preparedness, as well as improving demographic and epidemiological data.
*
This Research Topic will address the third sustainable development goal from an education-specific perspective. Themes welcome may address, but are not limited to:
• Mental health support for students, teachers, educational practitioners, and school/ university staff
• Back to in-person teaching/ learning: overcoming fears of COVID-19 and future pandemics
• Physical education practices and student access to sports/ gyms
• Mindfulness practice and teaching
• Student and teacher suicide
• Impact of education in society wellbeing
• Wellness and housing insecurities in higher, postsecondary, and/or tertiary education
• Tensions and psychological challenges for individuals that inform design of appropriate health and well-being initiatives by measuring student learning
Given the setbacks to health and wellbeing across the world from the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s edition of the Research Topic will focus particularly on the challenges and complexities of ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.