3: Cultural Solutions: A North West Australian Reflection on Sustainable Development Goal 3

This chapter addresses Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3): ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, at all ages’ (United Nations (UN), 2015). Agenda 2030 (UN, 2015) and the encyclical letter by Pope Francis (2015) known as Laudato Si’, launched within months of each other, aim to transform our world. Agenda 2030 comprises 17 SDGs which include ending poverty, reducing inequality, fighting climate change and promoting economic growth. Laudato Si’ advocates these goals with the exception of one: economic growth. Along with the technocratic paradigm, economic growth is posited by Laudato Si’ as a source of global problems. These two globally significant documents describe a vision for humanity free of poverty, disease, hunger, want, violence and fear – a world of health and well-being and human rights for all. However, each advocates different methodologies, reflecting distinctive ways of understanding and improving health and well-being.