Action on the social determinants for advancing health equity in the time of COVID-19: perspectives of actors engaged in a WHO Special Initiative.

Since the 2008 publication of the reports of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and its nine knowledge networks, substantial research has been undertaken to document and describe health inequities. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a deeper understanding of, and broader action on, the social determinants of health. Building on this unique and critical opportunity, the World Health Organization is steering a multi-country Initiative to reduce health inequities through an action-learning process in 'Pathfinder' countries. The Initiative aims to develop replicable and reliable models and practices that can be adopted by WHO offices and UN staff to address the social determinants of health to advance health equity. This paper provides an overview of the Initiative by describing its broad theory of change and work undertaken in three regions and six Pathfinder countries in its first year-and-a-half. Participants engaged in the Initiative describe results of early country dialogues and promising entry points for implementation that involve model, network and capacity building. The insights communicated through this note from the field will be of interest for others aiming to advance health equity through taking action on the social determinants of health, in particular as regards structural determinants.

Health promotion and the agenda for sustainable development, WHO Region of the Americas.

The approaches and tools of health promotion can be useful for civil society groups, local and national governments and multilateral organizations that are working to operationalize the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Health promotion and sustainable development share several core priorities, such as equity, intersectoral approaches and sustainability, that help maximize their impact across traditional sectoral boundaries. In the Region of the Americas, each of these priorities has strong resonance because of prominent and long-standing health inequities that are proving resistant to interventions driven solely by the health sector. We describe several cases from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Region of the Americas in which the approaches and tools of health promotion, with a focus on cities, healthy settings and multisectoral collaboration, have been used to put the agenda into practice. We highlight areas where such approaches and tools can be applied effectively and provide evidence of the transformative potential of health promotion in efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Les approches et outils de promotion de la santé peuvent être utiles aux groupes de la société civile, aux gouvernements locaux et nationaux et aux organismes multilatéraux qui s'efforcent de mettre en œuvre le Programme de développement durable à l'horizon 2030. La promotion de la santé et le développement durable ont plusieurs priorités centrales en commun, telles que l'équité, la collaboration intersectorielle et la durabilité, qui contribuent à optimiser leur impact au-delà des limites sectorielles habituelles. Chacune de ces priorités a une forte résonance dans la Région des Amériques, où les importantes inégalités en termes de santé durent depuis longtemps et semblent résister aux interventions menées à la seule initiative du secteur de la santé. Dans cet article, nous décrivons divers exemples provenant de la Région des Amériques de l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS), où plusieurs approches et outils de promotion de la santé (ciblant principalement les populations urbaines, la création d'environnements-santé et une collaboration multisectorielle) sont actuellement employés pour mettre en œuvre le Programme de développement durable. Nous mettons l'accent sur les domaines dans lesquels ces approches et outils peuvent être efficacement appliqués et nous proposons des données probantes sur le potentiel de transformation de la promotion de la santé dans les efforts menés pour atteindre les objectifs de développement durable.

Los enfoques y las herramientas para el fomento de la salud son útiles para los grupos de la sociedad civil, los gobiernos locales y nacionales y las organizaciones multilaterales que trabajan para poner en marcha el programa de desarrollo sostenible de 2030. El fomento de la salud y el desarrollo sostenible comparten varias prioridades básicas, como la equidad, los enfoques intersectoriales y la sostenibilidad, que ayudan a maximizar el impacto dentro de los límites sectoriales tradicionales. En la Región de las Américas, cada una de estas prioridades tiene una fuerte repercusión debido a las inequidades sanitarias prominentes y prolongadas que resisten a las intervenciones impulsadas únicamente por el sector de la salud. Se describen varios casos de la Región de las Américas de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) en los que los enfoques y las herramientas para el fomento de la salud, centrado en ciudades, entornos saludables y colaboración multisectorial, se han utilizado para poner en práctica el programa. Se destacan las áreas donde tales enfoques y herramientas se pueden aplicar de manera efectiva y ofrecer pruebas del potencial transformador del fomento de la salud en los esfuerzos por alcanzar los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible.

Health in all policies in the partnership for sustainable development.

This article analyzes the dynamic interaction between the Health in All Policies (HiAP) agenda and the ongoing implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, held in Rio de Janeiro in October 2011, the Rio Political Declaration pledged to use HiAP as a mechanism to address health inequities. In 2014, the Ministers of Health of the Region of the Americas approved a regional Plan of Action of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that sought to call attention to the health consequences and benefits of policies and actions developed by other sectors. The HiAP approach seeks to integrate activities across the pillars of the sustainable development governance framework (economic, social, and environmental development). Advocates of the process are challenged to consider, using guiding questions outlined at the close of this article, how to pursue action at the country level and in what ways the HiAP approach can contribute to timely and effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors propose that coordination between the 2030 Agenda and the regional Plan of Action on HiAP can make an important contribution to the implementation of both processes in the Region.

Health in all policies in the partnership for sustainable development / La salud en todas las políticas en la alianza en pro del desarrollo sostenible

This article analyzes the dynamic interaction between the Health in All Policies (HiAP) agenda and the ongoing implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, held in Rio de Janeiro in October 2011, the Rio Political Declaration pledged to use HiAP as a mechanism to address health inequities. In 2014, the Ministers of Health of the Region of the Americas approved a regional Plan of Action of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that sought to call attention to the health consequences and benefits of policies and actions developed by other sectors. The HiAP approach seeks to integrate activities across the pillars of the sustainable development governance framework (economic, social, and environmental development). Advocates of the process are challenged to consider, using guiding questions outlined at the close of this article, how to pursue action at the country level and in what ways the HiAP approach can contribute to timely and effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors propose that coordination between the 2030 Agenda and the regional Plan of Action on HiAP can make an important contribution to the implementation of both processes in the Region.

En el presente artículo se examina la interacción dinámica entre el programa de Salud en Todas las Políticas (STP) y la ejecución, en curso, de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible. En la Conferencia Mundial sobre los Determinantes Sociales de la Salud, celebrada en Río de Janeiro en octubre del 2011, la Declaración Política de Río puso de manifiesto el compromiso de adoptar el enfoque de STP como mecanismo para combatir las inequidades sanitarias. En el 2014, los ministros de salud de la Región de las Américas aprobaron un plan de acción regional de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) encaminado a hacer resaltar las consecuencias y los beneficios sanitarios de las políticas y medidas aplicadas por otros sectores. El enfoque de STP tiene por finalidad integrar las actividades de todas las áreas fundamentales del marco de gobernanza del desarrollo sostenible: el desarrollo económico, social y ambiental. A los partidarios del proceso se les insta a meditar, guiándose por las preguntas de orientación al final de este artículo, acerca de cómo emprender medidas en los países y cómo el enfoque de STP puede facilitar la puesta en práctica de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de manera pronta y eficaz. Los autores opinan que la coordinación de la Agenda 2030 con el plan de acción regional sobre la salud en todas las políticas puede dar un impulso importante a la aplicación de ambos procesos en la Región.