The Lancet Global Health: Entitled to a healthy, thriving future
Editorial Board

“Since the start of the Sustainable Development Goal era, several impediments to health and well-being, including climate change and the commercial determinants of health, have substantially increased in urgency and scale. Today’s children are due to inherit these problems and to be most affected by them. Feb. 18 saw publication of a WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission that emphasizes the urgency of improving child health in the context of these intensifying issues, now and sustainably into the future. … Many of us could not have predicted the substantial and rapid effects of climate change, conflict, economic inequality, and technological advances on health, yet these factors are now immediate priorities. However, we should not lose sight of the unfinished agenda of pneumonia and diarrhea as the biggest killers of the world’s children. Solutions will require long-term, sustainable strategies to give this and future generations equitable access to health care, education, democratic representation, and a safe living environment. Governmental leaders must be bold and ambitious enough to tackle these problems with child-focused strategies that will reach fruition long beyond their term in office” (March 2020).