Aim
Our aim is to contribute to international efforts to improve and safeguard the health of populations equitably post COVID-19 by identifying key actions for international, national and local actors that will synergistically
- prevent pandemics
- reduce non-communicable diseases
- protect natural environments
COVID-19 has rightly received huge attention but must not distract us from the continuing global challenges of non-communicable diseases — responsible for 70% of deaths globally — and environmental degradation, which is unravelling many of the ecosystems on which we all depend.
Finding common drivers and actions for reducing all three threats to population health synergistically has the potential to increase the chances of effective action, essential for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Achieving such action requires identifying levers with the potential to drive change at local, national and international levels.
The Commission – funded by Wellcome – will run for 18 months, from October 2020 to April 2022, culminating in a Lancet Commission Report to be submitted for publication by April 2022.
The Commission is addressing four key questions, under four broad themes:
- What are the common drivers of these three threats?
- What actions could tackle these common drivers synergistically?
- What are the costs and benefits – health, economic, social and political – of action and inaction on pandemics, poor population health and environmental degradation?
- What are the levers that can drive change at local, national and international levels?
