"To Save Humanity": What Matters Most for a Healthy Future

"The UN was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." --Dag Hammarskjöld, United Nations Secretary-General 1953-1961

The turn of the 21st century was an objective low point in the history of human health: AIDS was scourging Africa, millions of women died each year in child birth, and billions suffered under malnourishment and poverty. In response, the United Nations launched its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an ambitious charter that since 2000 has measurably reduced the worldwide burdens of poverty, hunger, and disease.

With the MDGs set to expire in 2015, continued progress on these fronts is anything but certain. In addition to the persisting threats of the 20th century, globalization has sped the development of new threats--pandemics, climate change, chronic disease--that now threaten rich and poor countries equally.

"To Save Humanity" is a collection of short, honest essays on what single issue matters most for the future of global health. Authored by the world's leading voices from science, politics, and social advocacy, this collection is both a primer on the major issues of our time and a potential blueprint for post-2015 health and development. This unparalleled collection will provide illuminating and thought-provoking reading for anyone invested in our collective future and well-being.

Julio Frenk, MD, MPH, PhD, is Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and T&G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health & International Development. He is an eminent authority on global health who served as the Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization and Senior Fellow of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He received the Clinton Global Citizen Award for changing "the way practitioners and policy makers across the world think about health."

Steven J. Hoffman, BHSc, MA, JD, is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Global Strategy Lab at the University of Ottawa, Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Health at Harvard University, and Assistant Professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics (Part-Time) at McMaster University. He previously worked for the Ontario Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care, World Health Organization and the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General.