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Vision has long been a quality and characteristic defining leadership. To cultivate vision among undergraduate students in a course, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are utilized as a foundation to inspire a vision that connects local service and personal interests to global, complex issues. Students select a goal to work with for various projects throughout their courses in a program, culminating with the selection of a goal to build a vision around for future contribution as leaders in our world. Student feedback indicated a positive impact of the SDGs on the awareness of global issues and the active role each can play at the local level for progress to continue moving forward.

There is growing awareness that global public health problems are so complex, and require such major resources, that neither states nor other stakeholders can tackle them and achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) on their own. This paper aims to examine the relevance of the MDGs to the pharmaceutical sector and summarizes the industry's contributions to helping achieve the MDGs in the context of its business goals.

The paper reviews the MDGs for which industry has made significant contributions, particularly goal 4: reduce child mortality; goal 5: improve maternal health; goal 6: combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and goal 8: develop a global partnership for development. The paper focuses on two public‐private partnerships (PPPs) in particular – the Merck MECTIZAN^® Donation Program, for the elimination of river blindness as a public health problem, and the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Botswana – and outlines some lessons learned. The paper also offers some considerations for PPPs to contribute further to public health and the MDGS in the future.

The pharmaceutical industry has made some major contributions to addressing public health challenges. Along the way, companies such as Merck & Co., Inc. (Whitehouse Station, New Jersey; Merck operates in most countries outside the USA as Merck Sharp & Dohme) have learned useful lessons that can be shared to inform the approach and practices of other PPPs in global health.

Relatively few overviews document the industry's contributions to public health, especially in relation to the MDGs. This paper provides a first step to fill that gap at a time when interest in PPPs is increasing.

The aims of this study is to put on the agenda discussions concerning the approach of sustainable goals and indicators, in terms of how they relate to each other and how to list their importance within a network of contemporary city management. From the millennium objectives experience, UN has launched the continuity of the development program, through the sustainable development goals (SDG), which have the purpose of giving support to local and regional governments for the 2030 agenda in local sphere. In the city context, sustainable development has also been approached in regulations, like ISO 37120: 2017 “Sustainable development of communities: Indicators for city services and quality of life”. These instruments have in common the concern of offering parameters of public services to citizens and promoting in a uniform manner both social and economic growth of the urban environment.

The present study aims to compare these two sustainable development tools by means of a documentary analysis and to analyze the feasibility of the proposed indicators and their qualitative evaluation goals to improve citizens’ quality of life.

The results suggest that the main urban challenges are related to unplanned urban growth and poor-quality public services, which generate a lack of commitment to enforce laws and to achieve sustainable development goals.

The study establishes bases for guiding the discussion to support managers and investors decisions to promote paradigm changes in the citizens’ life and in the way cities are planned.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenges faced by health professionals in meeting Millennium Goal 5 and reducing maternal mortality in Uganda.

Uganda is a low income land locked country with some major challenges around maternal health. There are many comprehensive and visionary plans produced by the Ugandan Government, however, there is a disconnect between policy and practice and there are many barriers to be addressed in order to reduce maternal mortality in Uganda.

Despite making considerable progress in reducing maternal mortality, Millenium Development Goal (MDG) 5 was not achieved and every day 300 children and 20 mothers die in Uganda. Major barriers include lack of resources, both human and equipment, disparities in access to care, lack of clinical skills and knowledge and financial constraints. The Millennium goals are now behind us and focus has shifted to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The Ugandan Government must focus on using these goals as part of developing the maternal and child health strategy by prioritising the human resource and health financial issues and continuing to work towards reducing maternal and perinatal mortality.

This paper gives a succinct review of the progress of Uganda towards meeting the Millennium Goal 5 and makes key recommendations for addressing SDG 3.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how ISO 26000 inter-marries with millennium development goals (MDGs) with a view to demonstrate and recommend how businesses can successfully use this intermarriage to solve society problems.

Case methodology was used to investigate how a company can use the social responsibility standard, ISO 26000, to guide its corporate social responsibility (CSR) aimed at contributing to MDGs. The paper focussed on the CSR dimension of community involvement and development (CI&D) interventions in health-related MDGs (4, 5 and 6). Data collection was by semi-structured interviews with CSR managers of the studied company, plus non-participant observation of CSR activities and projects. In order to develop a framework within which the collected data could be analyzed, the authors employed pattern-matching, explanation building and time series analysis. For generalization purposes of findings, the authors were guided by the “adaptive theory approach.”

The intermarriage is much revealed in health and wellness. This intermarriage also reveals cross-cutting issues which support universal access to health care and prevent illnesses. Lastly, the intermarriage is symbiotic in nature, that is, MDGs contribute what to achieve while ISO 26000 contributes how to achieve.

The case study (Uganda Baati Ltd, - UBL) that informed this research is a subsidiary company of a multinational, SAFAL Group. This provided an indication that global or trans-national forces drive CSR/CI&D at UBL. Thus, the findings may not fit directly with a company that has a local/national focus of its CSR/CI&D.

The paper presents guidelines to use and localize this intermarriage so as to focus CSR on global socio-economic development priorities, identify strategic stakeholders, and pathways to solutions for complex CI&D issues.

This research advances the Post-2015 MDG Development Agenda suggested during the United Nations MDG Summit in 2010 which called for academic contributions on how MDGs can be realized even after 2015.

The purpose of this paper is to address issues relating to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UNMDG) in the Middle East, analysing socio‐cultural issues having direct relevance to the region's progress toward “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women”.

The authors employ meta‐analyses with data from the United Nations, the Arab Human Development Report, and various sources of measurement of national means for Hofstede's five‐dimensional model of cultural value.

The authors find that the percentage of women in employment, excluding the agricultural sector, in their sample of Middle East countries has declined since 2000, while in the samples of other Muslim‐majority and all other countries the percentage employed has increased.

The limitations of the authors' research are that complete sets of data for women in employment are not available for all years for all countries in their samples.

Implications for practice for governments and businesses in Middle East countries are that women are a valuable economic resource which is being excluded from contribution and for the past decade the change in the Middle East has been in a negative direction.

The economic contributions and rights of women in the Middle East lag behind most of the developed and developing nations, including other Muslim‐majority nations.

This study provides empirical evidence from publicly available data concerning the employment status of women in Middle Eastern nations. The authors found no similar empirical studies in the literature. The study is of value to planners and policy‐makers in business, government, and non‐governmental organisations.

Improving Global Health is a one year leadership scheme which places trainee doctors and more experienced nurses, midwives and AHPs in a developing country (Cambodia or Tanzania) to develop leadership and quality improvement skills while contributing to Millennium goals in the developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to report on an independent evaluation of the programme, with the purpose of highlighting lessons learned to inform other leadership development initiatives, and in particular to highlight the vital importance of a receptive NHS environment if maximum value is to be gained from investment in clinical leadership.

The evaluation methodology comprised literature review; review of documentation, including on line questionnaires to Fellows; interviews with stakeholders and attendance at key scheme events in July‐September 2011. Fellows who had completed an overseas placement in either Cambodia or Tanzania during 2009‐2010 were interviewed using a semi structured questionnaire. Mentors and Steering Group members were interviewed using an amended version of the Fellows' questionnaire.

Impact was found at the level of personal development; working collaboratively; and understanding the value of audit, teaching and quality improvement. There was some impact on the NHS, however, the majority of Fellows struggled to find opportunities to apply their learning immediately on return from their overseas placement.

Resource and time constraints meant that achievements in meeting Millennium goals were excluded from the evaluation; the authors' working assumption is that only Fellows who enjoyed the Fellowship responded to the invitation to take part; judging the extent to which the Fellowship meets its goal of creating a cadre of improvement champions in the NHS will require time to elapse.

Lessons from implementation of this Fellowship scheme are transferable to the wider NHS.

The paper provides lessons on the design of leadership schemes intended to develop quality improvement skills, particularly for clinicians at an early career stage, illustrates the potential of a placement in a developing country to achieve this, and highlights the importance of a receptive NHS environment to realise maximum benefit from investment in leadership development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the appropriateness of faith‐based model (FBM) as a veritable policy response to the issue of poverty alleviation and actualisation of the millennium development goals (MDGs) in Nigeria.

The paper combined qualitative and quantitative date to validate the appropriateness of FBM, to tackling poverty issues in Nigeria. The first section presents a brief introduction on poverty issue in Nigeria. The second section outlines the theoretical and methological approaches adopted in the paper. The third section casts a cursory look at the conceptualisation of poverty in the literature. The fourth section explores poverty‐eradication efforts in Nigeria. The fifth section highlights the failure of previous poverty reduction strategies (PRS) in Nigeria. The sixth section presents a background to MDGs. The seventh section show‐cases application of Islamic economics models (faith‐based model and business system model (BSM)) to MDGs. The eighth section is devoted to data projections, analysis and interpretation. The final section concludes with policy prescriptions.

On the basis of projection which is hinged on Shari'ah assumptions (minimum zakatable wealth and 2.5 per cent Zakat rate), the paper shows that Zakat and Sadaqat collections from year 2009 to 2015 would amount to N357,038 billions and N31 billion, respectively. These funds would go a long way in helping to alleviate poverty and actualisation of MDGs in Nigeria.

The faith‐based poverty reduction strategy enriched by BSM as conceptualised in this study can be used to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (MDG 1), achieve universal primary education (MDG 2), promote gender equality and empower women (MDG 3), reduce child mortality (MDG 4), improve maternal health (MDG 5), combat, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDGs 6), ensure environmental sustainability (MDG 7) and develop a global partnership for development (MDG 8).

The results of this paper support the Islamic economics view that Zakat and Sadaqat are viable fiscal mechanisms for poverty alleviation where adopted. The FBM as conceptualised in this paper would therefore complement and pose a positive challenge to contemporary PRS in use in many poverty‐ridden nations where economic indicators have justified prevalence of poverty, despite the various PRS put in place by policy makers.

This chapter explores the gap between social expectations and actual sustainability performance in the business world and identifies the root causes of this discrepancy. The author reviews corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, and their relationship with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter also compares the connections and differences between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the SDGs. The author analyzes possible solutions to bridge the gap, including renewing the social contract between businesses, society and institutions. This involves rethinking the role of businesses and institutions in promoting sustainability and creating new systems and structures that incentivize sustainable practices. This chapter concludes by discussing the pathway to a sustainable and inclusive world through systems innovation and change. When embracing a systems thinking approach, individuals and organizations can identify and address the root causes of unsustainability, and create more resilient and sustainable systems that benefit both people and the planet.

Environmental degradation, economic and political threats along with ideological extremism necessitate a global redirection toward sustainability and well-being. Since the survival of all species (humans, animals, and plants) is wholly dependent on a healthy planet, urgent action at the highest levels to address large-scale interconnected problems is needed to counter the thinking that perpetuates the “folly of a limitless world.” Paralleling critical societal roles played by universities – ancient, medieval, and modern – throughout the millennia, this chapter calls for all universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) generally – estimated at over 28,000 – to take a lead together in tackling the pressing complex and intractable challenges that face us. There are about 250 million students in tertiary education worldwide rising to about 600 million by 2040. Time is not on our side. While much of the groundwork has been done by the United Nations (UN) and civil society, concerns remain over the variable support given to the UN-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in light of the negative impact of global biodiversity loss on achieving the UN-2030 SDGs. Ten propositions for global sustainability, ranging from adopting the SDGs at national and local levels to ensuring peaceful uses of technology and UN reforms in line with global socioeconomic shifts, are provided for consideration by decisionmakers. Proposition #7 calls for the unifying One Health & Well-Being (OHWB) concept to become the cornerstone of our educational systems as well as societal institutions and to underpin the UN-2030 SDGs. Recognizing the need to change our worldview (belief systems) from human-centrism to eco-centrism, and re-building of trust in our institutions, the chapter argues for the re-conceptualization of the university/higher education purpose and scope focusing on the development of an interconnected ecological knowledge system with a concern for the whole Earth – and beyond. The 2019 novel coronavirus has made clear that the challenges facing our world cannot be solved by individual nations alone and that there is an urgency to committing to shared global values that reflect the OHWB concept and approach. By drawing on our collective experience and expertise informed by the UN-2030 SDGs, we will be in a much stronger position to shape and strengthen multilateral strategies to achieve the UN-2030 Transformative Vision – “ending poverty, hunger, inequality and protecting the Earth’s natural resources,” and thereby helping “to save the world from itself.”