3.1
By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
Measured by
- 3.1.1Tier 1Maternal mortality ratio
- 3.1.2Tier 1Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
4Planet
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United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Goal 3 is the largest goal in the agenda by measurement: it carries more indicators than any other, and almost all of them have both an agreed method and regular country reporting. Health ministries were already producing most of these numbers before 2015, which is why this goal reads more like an existing statistical system than a new one.
Its targets span maternal and child mortality, communicable disease, non-communicable disease and mental health, substance abuse, road deaths, sexual and reproductive health, universal health coverage, and pollution-related mortality — plus means of implementation covering tobacco control, vaccine and medicine access, and the health workforce.
Verified work by charities on 4Planet, tagged to Goal 3.
Official UN wording. Serious reporting maps work to targets rather than goals — the code is what belongs in a disclosure. Numbered targets are outcomes; lettered targets are means of implementation.
By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births
Worth knowing before you cite a Goal 3 figure.
This goal has the strongest data in the agenda overall, but civil registration is weakest exactly where mortality is highest. Deaths that are never registered do not enter the series, so the best-measured goal still has its largest blind spots in the places that matter most.
Where medical certification is unavailable, cause of death is derived from verbal autopsy or statistical models. The totals are defensible; the split between causes carries far more uncertainty than a published figure suggests.
Mental health and well-being appear inside a target chiefly concerned with non-communicable disease, measured through suicide mortality. The framework offers no instrument for prevalence, treatment coverage or outcomes.
The coverage index tracks whether services are available, and a separate indicator tracks catastrophic health spending. Neither captures quality of care, so a country can register high coverage of services that do not work well.
Across all 17 goals, 35% of assessed targets are on track or making moderate progress and 18% have regressed. Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, UN DESA.
No 4Planet writing carries this goal yet. Read the rest of the blog.
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By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases
By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being
Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents
By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes
Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all
By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination
Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate
Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all
Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States
Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks
