Overview

Equity in health is an overarching principle of the World Health Organization. In recent decades, gaps in health equity between countries and among social groups within countries have widened, despite medical and technological progress. WHO and other health and development actors have defined tackling of health inequities as a major priority and aim to provide support to countries in more effective action geared to meeting the health needs of vulnerable groups.

Meeting this goal will require attending to the social and economic factors that determine people’s opportunities for health. An intersectoral approach, though often politically difficult, is indispensable for substantial progress towards health equity. The Millennium Development Goals underscore the deeply interwoven nature of health and economic development processes, the need for coordination among multiple sectors to reach health goals, and the importance of addressing poverty and gender inequality.

This situation raises challenges for ministries of health, which must work in innovative ways to foster intersectoral collaboration on the social and economic determinants of health even as they align key health sector specific programmes to respond better to the needs of vulnerable populations. Effective means to promote health gains for vulnerable groups include integration into health-sector policies and programmes of equity-enhancing, pro-poor, gender-responsive, ethically sound approaches. Human rights offer a unifying conceptual framework for these strategies and standards by which to evaluate success.

The crucial challenges are many. First, there is need to develop sufficient expertise regarding the social and economic determinants of health, gender analysis and actions, and ethics and human rights at regional and country levels to be able to provide support to Member States in collecting and acting on relevant data on an intersectoral basis. Second, we need to ensure that all levels of the Organization reflect the perspectives of social and economic determinants (including gender and poverty), gender equality, ethics, and human rights in their programmes and normative work. Third, we need to adopt the correct approach to measuring effects. This final challenge is especially great because results in terms of greater health equity will seldom be rapidly apparent or easily attributed to particular interventions. Distinctive modes of evaluation are required for assessing processes, that is, ways in which policies and interventions are designed, vetted and implemented. One must assess whether the steps taken are known to be effective in bringing about change, rather than measuring health outcomes themselves. The relationship of the health sector as a whole with other parts of government and society is also an important indicator.

For more information contact:

Dr. Davison Munodawafa
Tel: +4724139476
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