Key Inquiry Question 4:
What actions are needed to promote and improve the health of Australians?

In this key inquiry question, you focus on the actions needed to improve the health status of Australians through a community lens. This section builds on your earlier understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and shifts the emphasis towards how those goals can be applied in practical ways to improve health. The focus is not on treating each goal separately. Instead, you examine how the goals connect with one another and how that interrelated approach can inform stronger health strategies for a specific community. The teaching advice also makes it clear that students are expected to work with community evidence, including sources such as regional census data and local health district data, to identify major health issues and evaluate possible responses.

4.1 – Describe the key features of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

You begin by describing the key features of selected Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG 4: Quality Education, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. This requires you to understand what each goal focuses on and why each one matters to community health. It is important to recognise that these goals are not isolated. Health is shaped not only by healthcare, but also by education, inequality and the quality and safety of the communities in which people live. This means the goals need to be understood as connected parts of a broader framework for improving health and wellbeing.

4.2 – Evaluate the application of SDGs 3, 4, 10 and 11 to inform strategies to improve the health status of a community

You then evaluate how SDGs 3, 4, 10 and 11 can be applied to improve the health status of a community. This involves examining how these goals have been used in other communities, what lessons can be drawn from those examples, what the major health issues are within a chosen community, and what strategies are needed to improve health and strengthen advocacy. Because the directive verb is evaluate, you are expected to make a judgement based on evidence. That means considering whether the proposed strategies respond to real community need, whether they address inequality, whether they reflect the interconnected nature of the goals, and whether there is sound reason to believe they may be effective. In practice, this requires using available community data carefully and judging strategies on more than intention alone.

By completing this key inquiry question, you develop the ability to connect global goals with local health action and to evaluate realistic, evidence-based strategies for improving the health of Australians within real community contexts.