Blog 5: France
Bonjour and welcome to my SDG #5 blog post!
Today I will be focusing on France, which is located in Western Europe between Belgium and Spain (CIA, 2018). According to the World Health Organization, France has a total population of about 67 million people (WHO,2019). They have a life expectancy of 80 years for males and 86 years for females which is much higher than the United States (WHO, 2019). Out of all the countries I have viewed thus far for life expectancy, France has surpassed each and every one of them which means they are doing something that is working for their people.
SDG #3 focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promotes well-being for all ages. Part of this goal includes maternal mortality and France has 8 deaths/100,000 live births as of 2015 (CIA, 2018). That places them in spot 157 compared to the rest of the world. France has a proactive international health policy which has made sexual and reproductive health one of its main priorities (Republic of France, 2016). In 2010, France supported the Muskoka initiative in which they decided to spend 500 million Euros over 5 years to accelerate the achievement of the MDG goals which were before SDG (Global Health Workforce Alliance, 2012). This initiative took place from 2011-2015, to help reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality (Republic of France, 2016). Then again in 2016, France gave 10 million Euros for this same cause. France is involved in many projects to help improve health security funds, which I think is an amazing way to make progress.
France has about 200,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and is placed at number 29 in comparison to the rest of the world (CIA, 2018). According to the CDC, the most common infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases include Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Rabies (Venusti, 2018). It should be known that France is the number two contributor to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Republic of France, 2016). France has invested 1.08 billion Euros for this cause and also supports the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) (Republic of France, 2016). France has a total expenditure on health as 11.4% of GDP (WHO, 2019). The Health Act in France focuses on 3 main topics which structure the health system’s modernization. These three topics include innovation for prevention, innovation for local healthcare and innovation to increase patients’ rights and safety (Republic of France, 2016). Even with this health act, universal health coverage is a key French priority and I think they should work as hard as they can to achieve it. In my opinion, France is headed in the right direction to completing and aiming as much as they can to meet all SDG priorities. If things continue to flow in the right direction, we all as a part of this world can bounce ideas that are working and continue to improve what is clearly not working.
References
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). (2018). The World Factbook: France. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fr.html
Global Health Workforce Alliance. (2012). France's support for Muskoka initiative in Guinea, Togo, Mali, DRC. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/workforcealliance/media/news/2012/muskokafrances
Republic of France. (2016). Report on the Implementation by France of the Sustainable Development Goals. [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/10726Report SDGs France.pdf
Venusti. S. (2018, February 28). The Most Common Diseases in France. Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/most-common-diseases-in-france/
World Health Organization (WHO). (2019, April 06). France. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/countries/fra/en/
Hey Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI also did France this week. It’s neat to see how France addresses the different sustainable development goals. I thought it was really interesting that France is doing a good job in making sure that their maternal mortality rate does not increase. So far it is 8 deaths per 100,000, which I believe is good compared to other countries. Recently, I have placed value in sexual and reproductive health because there are many deaths that can be prevented if a person was more well-rounded in this health topic. So, when you mentioned that France prioritizes this, it made me see that this country most likely takes STD prevention, maternal mortality, unintended pregnancies, and contraceptive education seriously. It sounds like France is on the right track to make sure its citizens have a good health system in place.
Thank you,
Itzel H.