Illustrating the impact of commercial determinants of health on the global COVID-19 pandemic: Thematic analysis of 16 country case studies.

Previous research on commercial determinants of health has primarily focused on their impact on non-communicable diseases. However, they also impact on infectious diseases and on the broader preconditions for health. We describe, through case studies in 16 countries, how commercial determinants of health were visible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they may have influenced national responses and health outcomes. We use a comparative qualitative case study design in selected low- middle- and high-income countries that performed differently in COVID-19 health outcomes, and for which we had country experts to lead local analysis. We created a data collection framework and developed detailed case studies, including extensive grey and peer-reviewed literature. Themes were identified and explored using iterative rapid literature reviews. We found evidence of the influence of commercial determinants of health in the spread of COVID-19. This occurred through working conditions that exacerbated spread, including precarious, low-paid employment, use of migrant workers, procurement practices that limited the availability of protective goods and services such as personal protective equipment, and commercial actors lobbying against public health measures. Commercial determinants also influenced health outcomes by influencing vaccine availability and the health system response to COVID-19. Our findings contribute to determining the appropriate role of governments in governing for health, wellbeing, and equity, and regulating and addressing negative commercial determinants of health.

Engaging globally with how to achieve healthy societies: insights from India, Latin America and East and Southern Africa.

The way healthy societies are conceptualised shapes efforts to achieve them. This paper explores the features and drivers of frameworks for healthy societies that had wide or sustained policy influence post-1978 at global level and as purposively selected southern regions, in India, Latin America and East and Southern Africa. A thematic analysis of 150 online documents identified paradigms and themes. The findings were discussed with expertise from the regions covered to review and validate the findings.Globally, comprehensive primary healthcare, whole-of-government and rights-based approaches have focused on social determinants and social agency to improve health as a basis for development. Biomedical, selective and disease-focused technology-driven approaches have, however, generally dominated, positioning health improvements as a result of macroeconomic growth. Traditional approaches in the three southern regions previously mentioned integrated reciprocity and harmony with nature. They were suppressed by biomedical, allopathic models during colonialism and by postcolonial neoliberal economic reforms promoting selective, biomedical interventions for highest-burden diseases, with weak investment in public health. In all three regions, holistic, sociocultural models and claims over natural resources re-emerged. In the 2000s, economic, ecological, pandemic crises and social inequality have intensified alliances and demand to address global, commercial processes undermining healthy societies, with widening differences between 'planetary health', integrating ecosystems and collective interests, and the coercive controls and protectionism in technology-driven and biosecurity-driven approaches.The trajectories point to a need for ideas and practice on healthy societies to tackle systemic determinants of inequities within and across countries, including to reclaim suppressed cultures; to build transdisciplinary, reflexive and participatory forms of knowledge that are embedded in and learn from action; and to invest in a more equitable circulation of ideas between regions in framing global ideas. Today's threats raise a critical moment of choice on which ideas dominate, not only for health but also for survival.

Applying the Innov8 approach for reviewing national health programmes to leave no one behind: lessons learnt from Indonesia.

The World Health Organization's Innov8 Approach for Reviewing National Health Programmes to Leave No One Behind is an eight-step process that supports the operationalization of the Sustainable Development Goals' commitment to 'leave no one behind'. In 2014-2015, Innov8 was adapted and applied in Indonesia to review how the national neonatal and maternal health action plans could become more equity-oriented, rights-based and gender-responsive, and better address critical social determinants of health. The process was led by the Indonesian Ministry of Health, with the support of WHO. It involved a wide range of actors and aligned with/fed into the drafting of the maternal newborn health action plan and the implementation planning of the newborn action plan. Key activities included a sensitization meeting, diagnostic checklist, review workshop and in-country work by the review teams. This 'methods forum' article describes this adaptation and application process, the outcomes and lessons learnt. In conjunction with other sources, Innov8 findings and recommendations informed national and sub-national maternal and neonatal action plans and programming to strengthen a 'leave no one behind' approach. As follow-up during 2015-2017, components of the Innov8 methodology were integrated into district-level planning processes for maternal and newborn health, and Innov8 helped generate demand for health inequality monitoring and its use in planning. In Indonesia, Innov8 enhanced national capacity for equity-oriented, rights-based and gender-responsive approaches and addressing critical social determinants of health. Adaptation for the national planning context (e.g. decentralized structure) and linking with health inequality monitoring capacity building were important lessons learnt. The pilot of Innov8 in Indonesia suggests that this approach can help operationalize the SDGs' commitment to leave no one behind, in particular in relation to influencing programming and monitoring and evaluation.

Los Determinantes Sociales de Salud y la lucha por la equidad en Salud: desafíos para el Estado y la

The social, economic and political context in which people grow, live, work and age has enormous impact on their health status. These wider struc-tural determinants of health lie largely outside the health sector. The level and coverage of social protection systems is one key determinant. Social protection measures and mechanisms directly contribute to poverty reduction and human resource development by providing recipients with in-kind or cash transfers. They also allow beneficiaries to gain better access to social services, including health facilities, drugs, etc

Los Determinantes Sociales de Salud y la lucha por la equidad en salud: desafíos para el estado y la sociedad civil / The Social Determinants of Health and the struggle for health equity: challenges for states and civil society

La OMS ha creado una Comisión de los Determinantes Sociales de la Salud que producirá su reporte en el 2008. Aunque el tema de los determinantes sociales (DSS) de la salud no es nuevo, la nueva visibilidad global en el tema refleja el agotamiento del modelo de desarrollo neoliberal que ha agudizado la inequidad y consecuentemente hace resurgir el tema de la justicia social. Nuevos enfoques y evidencia ubican la inequidad en salud como resultado de la inequitativa distribución de los DSS. Procesos en curso como la globalización de signo neoliberal y el cambio climático agudizan las inequidades así como la exclusión en salud al actuar directa y desigualmente sobre los DSS. Algunos ejemplos de políticas publicas exitosas: Suecia, dado su particular contexto político-institucional ha desarrollado una política (intersectorial) de salud publica cuyo objetivo es disminuir la inequidad diseñando estrategias participativas sobre sus DSS. Chile viene también construyendo inclusivamente un sistema de protección social infantil (Chile Crece Contigo) a partir de una integración de programas bajo un norte de derechos y de DSS. La meta es la cobertura universal con un enfoque de ciclo de vida. Finalmente, la Sociedad Civil de las Américas viene desarrollando un debate hacia una agenda común en el tema de los DSS, con los gobiernos de Brasil y Chile así como la OEA, OPS y OMS. Los ejes son la lucha por un nuevo modelo de desarrollo participativo y sostenible que democratice el abordaje de los DSS bajo un enfoque de derechos.

WHO has launched the Commission on Social determinants of Health which will deliver its final report in 2008. The social determinants of health (SDH) approach is not a new subject but one which has gained more visibility with the widening of inequities, blamed on the neo-liberal development model. Progressively, social justice issues are re-emerging, backed by evidence and new approaches which crystallize the relationship between unequal distribution of SDH and their consequences, unequal health outcomes. Processes like globalization under a neo-liberal brand and climate change influence the SDH, resulting in acute inequities and social marginalization. There are some successful examples of countries with policies addressing the SDH. For example, Sweden, with due regard to its particular political and institutional context, has developed public health intersectoral policies that aim at decreasing health inequities. These policies also encourage a participatory model as a means of efficiently tackling the SDH. Another example is Chile which is building a children social protection system (Chile Crece Contigo) using an integrated approach that includes right-based and SDH approaches. The programme's objective is universal coverage with a life cycle approach. A major milestone for civil society in Latin America is the effort by the Americas' Civil Society organizations to strengthen a dialogue that fosters a common agenda on the SDH. The organizations are working with the governments of Brazil, Chile, the OIAS, PAHO and WHO. Their goal is to introduce a new participatory and sustainable development mode, one which is participatory, rights-based and ensures sustainable improvements of SDHs and benefits all people.