Sustainable Development
About The Importance of Health Equity
Health inequities are the unfair and avoidable differences in health status within and between countries. Understanding the social determinants that affect health is fundamental for improving health and reducing longstanding inequities in health.
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The "postcode lottery" (where a person lives) predicts health outcomes. Poverty and education are important factors affecting postcodes and health equity.
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In 2015, all the countries in the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It sets out the following 17 Goals:
Social Determinants of Health
The conditions where people are born, grow, live, work and age are called the social determinants of health. These also include people’s access to things like power, money, and resources.
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These conditions have a big impact on health inequities. There are unfair and avoidable differences in health, both within and between countries.
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Health follows a social gradient: if someone has a lower socioeconomic position, their health is usually worse. People who don't have quality housing, education, social protection, and job opportunities have a higher risk of getting sick and dying. It turns out that these social determinants can be more important in influencing health than genes or access to hospitals.
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If we want to make people healthier and reduce these unfair differences, addressing the social determinants is really important. This needs action from all parts of government, as well as the private sector and communities. The WHO is committed to supporting countries in implementing policies to help with this.
Action Needed
There are three areas for critical action identified in the report of the Global Commission on Social Determinants of Health. These are important for tackling inequities in health:
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Improve daily living conditions; the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work and age;
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Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources; the structural drivers of those conditions of daily life (for example, macroeconomic and urbanization policies and governance);
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Measure and understand the problem and assess the impact of action; expand the knowledge base, develop a workforce that is trained in the social determinants of health, and raise public awareness about the social determinants of health
The Navigator Project supports important Healthcare and Research initiatives, such as Biotope and COMPASS.
The Navigator Project aims to use the medium of theatre to explore how marginalisation causes health inequality. It will ask whether integrating science, cross-cultural learning and theatre could raise awareness about health inequality in marginalised communities.
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