ICTs for Sustainable Development Goals - Framework for eHealth Strategy Development

Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), ensures that all people enjoy a healthy lifestyle and well-being at all ages. 
SDG 3 aims to provide access to effective medicines and safe vaccines and achieve universal health coverage for all. 
To achieve sustainable development goals, information and communication technology (ICT) has to be integrated with innovative policies, services, and solutions. 
ICT can be a powerful medium of implementation in many important ways: accelerated services in health, financial services, education, smart agriculture, and low-carbon energy systems. 
Significant investment is being made in eHealth solutions in almost every country in the world. 
The National E-Health Strategy Toolkit is a practical and expert guide that represents the national e-health vision, action plan, and monitoring framework.

ICTs for Sustainable Development Goals - Framework for eHealth Strategy Development

ICTs as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development Goals - eHealth Strategic Framework

Sustainable Development - An Overview

Human development projects in various economic, social, cultural and political aspects have led to many changes and achievements accompanied by damage to the environment.

There is no agreement on the definition of sustainable development, it can be defined as the wise management of available natural resources in a manner that ensures economic and social prosperity, and fulfills the development and environmental needs of present and future generations.

The Components of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development depends on the realization of two basic things: the right to development and the right to protect the environment, both of which are fundamental human rights.

The most important things about these foundations and components are:

1- The human being is the main responsible and the holder of the secretariat from his creator.

2 - Nature, and the resources contained by God for the service of man and the need for continuous use.

3 - Technology, and what it means from the use of scientific knowledge in the investment of environmental resources, and solve their problems, and address the risks faced.

Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable development through its mechanisms and organs seeks to achieve several objectives, including:

1. Improving national capacity for responsible and informed management of natural resources to achieve a better life for all segments of society.

2. Linking modern technology to serve the goals of society, and collecting sufficient basic data of an environmental nature to allow sound development planning.

3. Informing the public who is facing challenges in various fields to ensure effective popular participation.

4. Special emphasis should be placed on vulnerable systems, whether agricultural land exposed to desertification or water sources subject to depletion, pollution or indiscriminate urban growth.

5. Respect for the natural environment by regulating the relationship between human activities and the elements of the environment, not harming it, in addition to enhancing the environmental awareness of the population, and developing the individual's sense of responsibility towards environmental problems.

6. Ensure that environmental planning is integrated into all stages of development planning in order to achieve rational and informed exploitation of natural resources to prevent depletion or destruction.

Health Indicators for Sustainable Development Goals - SDG 3 indicators

Sustainable development indicators contribute to the assessment of the progress of States and institutions in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals effectively. 
These indicators revolve around the recommendations of the 21st Century Agenda set by the United Nations, which are appropriate health care for all members of society, especially remote areas and rural areas, from controlling endemic and epidemic diseases caused by environmental pollution to primary health care. 

Here, we have mentioned some key points about the health targets for SDG 3.

⇒Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), which ensures that all people enjoy healthy lifestyles and well-being at all ages. This edition addresses the relationship between human health and the Sustainable Development Goals.

⇒The focus of the 2030 Agenda on country-level needs is based on the participation of all actors rather than the traditional top-down, single-sector approach. 
Intersectoral governance is at the heart of how social determinants of health are addressed and it shows how to address antimicrobial resistance through a single health approach.

⇒Specifically, Member States must ensure that health services are made available by protection from exorbitant health expenditures, in order to achieve the target 3.8 of universal health coverage.

⇒Universal health coverage will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by producing equitable and sustainable health outcomes.

⇒Gaps in good governance exacerbate many inequalities between people with different socio-economic situations.

⇒Factors such as race, gender, and disability may exacerbate health inequality. 
Therefore, tracking indicators that measure the health of vulnerable groups is essential and monitoring the conditions for equitable access to health care will shed light on the current situation of human rights and social equality within countries.

⇒People who do not have access to adequate health services are often disadvantaged in all social aspects. Improving our understanding of the factors that contribute to access to health services will help shape policies to achieve SDG 3.

Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development

The purpose of environmental protection is to maintain a healthy natural environment and achieve sustainable development goals. The industrial pollution, deforestation, greenhouse gases and depletion of the ozone layer, result in climate change and global warming, which will have adverse effects on the environment and human health.

Many activists seek to protect the environment from catastrophic changes. These activists seek to reduce the pollution to which the environment is particularly exposed due to human industrial activity. 
Their work is based on trying to influence the political and educational process in order to protect natural resources and ecosystems.

The Ministry of Health seeks to preserve the environment by relying on technology to execute internal transactions and provide services to citizens in electronic form - paperless electronic services, which are provided to the beneficiary wherever he is without visiting the Ministry or any of its offices.

The Ministry of Health always advocates in all its activities to preserve the environment and strives to achieve sustainability in a comprehensive sense in all its electronic services, and its internal transactions and procedures, allowing for continuous renewal, and the possibility of expansion and modernization.

The Ministry of Health has adopted a number of measures in this area, including balancing resources and needs, activating the role of the community and sharing opinions through the participation of citizens' opinions and proposals through the (citizen's voice) system, conducting an interim and objective assessment of the work accomplished, developing detailed and comprehensive action plans with alternative solutions and precautionary measures, setting viable goals, and establishing workable targets, setting easy-to-measure indicators to follow up the work continuously and periodically, and raising public awareness about the work carried out by the ministry so that public participation is positive.

National e-Health Strategy Toolkit

The National e-Health Strategy Toolkit is a practical and expert guide that provides governments, ministries, and stakeholders with a solid foundation and approach to development and implementation of the national e-health vision, action plan and monitoring framework.

E-health is changing the way health care is delivered and is at the heart of the health systems response. 
Whether in providing care, distributing people, conducting research, or supporting humanitarian action, at all levels and in every country, health work is dependent on information and communication technology (ICT).

ICTs for Sustainable Development Goals

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has played a prominent role in this field, which has positively reflected on the surrounding environment by reducing the use of vehicles and reducing pollution rates.

Technological advances, economic investment, and social and cultural changes also contribute to the expectation that the health sector will need to integrate technology to perform these actions.

The World Health Organization defines e-health as the use of ICTs for health. In the broader sense, e-health depends on improving the flow of information, through electronic means, to support the delivery of health services and the management of health systems.

The Ministry of Health has defined strategic business objectives to improve the quality of health care and the accessibility of services and patient outcomes. 

Coordinating the objectives of the e-health strategy with those of the Ministry of Health will lay a strong foundation for achieving the highest values at the medical and commercial levels. 
Therefore, each strategic objective of the Ministry of Health is offset by a strategic objective in e-health.

Principles and Framework for eHealth Strategy Development

E-health practices, standards, and lessons learned from other sectors to come up with a set of guidelines for developing e-health strategies.

→Compliance with the Ministry of Health action plan.

→Rapid implementation of high clinical significance.

→Detailed criteria according to the approach taken.

→Manage changes and minimize risks.

→Designate e-health as a service that provides clinical and commercial services.

→Developing capabilities.

These principles are combined with a careful analysis of the characteristics of health service delivery which has enabled us to present a realistic strategy and roadmap that reflects the specific demands of the world.