The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, include decent work, health and gender equity as part of the 17 goals. The SDGs are a set of universally applicable goals that balance different dimensions of sustainable development. They apply to all countries and are intended to promote human rights, greater equity, peaceful and inclusive societies, create decent and sustainable jobs and address the enormous environmental challenges of which climate change constitutes a significant part.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) which informs the development agenda until 2030 provide a golden opportunity for Workplaces in South Africa to find inclusive processes to help address, amongst others, the vexing challenge of our heavy burden of disease which almost 9 percent of our GDP cannot adequately address. Countries have to report on the 17 goals through various KPI’s and STATS South Africa will assist in this reporting process. It provides us with the opportunity to build on the synergies of the goals on health, decent work, youth employment, gender equality and sustainable environments and economies. The NIOH and its multi-disciplinary teams are committed to work with as many workplace role-players as possible for greater occupational and environmental health and safety.

The NIOH is committed to delivering on these goals and in particular to Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being); Goal 5 (Gender Equality) and Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). Environmental pollution secondary to industrial activity contributes enormously to the burden of non-communicable diseases in many countries including our own. The NIOH strongly feels that this should constitute an important part of deliberations on effective and efficient interventions at workplaces. We are motivated to work with many other workplace stakeholders to ensure the achievement of these Goals.