Critically Assess The Article by Labonte’ (2015) on Sustainable Development Goals - Assignment Help

There have been many efforts made by the governments towards a better lifestyle and a healthier living since the beginning. However, this journey came along with certain challenges as the political and socio-economic norms changed with time. These ‘social determinants’ (Farrell, McAvoy and Wilde 2008) affect the health promotion strategies adopted by the governments. Labonte’ (2015) has started his article by mentioning the Ottawa Charter which spread across the globe in hope of health promotion. He has also mentioned other steps taken towards health promotion, including the Gramsci’s optimism of the will, COP21 Paris Agreement on climate change, the Millennium Development Goals and its successors, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, he says that the political, economic and social shifts since then have created inequality and rise in normative equity. 

The Sustainable Developmental Goals announced by the United Nation in 2013 provide a comprehensive set of health priorities that need to be targeted for a healthier human social and ecological world. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the SDGs eradicate the root cause of poverty and change the planet in a positive manner (Adams 2017). However, Labonte’s article has discussed that although the SDGs provide a guideline which could be followed by the governments around the world for health promotion and better lifestyle, he has also stated the criticism that SDGs received. Labonte’s main argument or approach in the article is to systemically follow the SDGs as a blueprint but, in addition, work on the flaws it has. He states: “This may strike some as a simplistic claim and, glass half-empty, there is little reason to expect that such actions will guarantee the results we seek, i.e., governments keen to implement the SDGs, to strengthen labour over capital, to redistribute resources progressively and to regulate for a fairer future. But the glass half-full tells us that not doing so simply guarantees our failure” (Labonte’ 2016).