Addressing Health Inequities: Whose responsibility is it?
- D.H
The School of Public Health Initiates an Annual Healthy Inequity Lecture
In the inaugural lecture on Health Equity on 23 February 2017, Sir Michael Marmot argued that social injustice is the greatest threat to global health, and that government, academics and other members of civil society have an important role to play in addressing societal imbalances in power, money, and resources that work against health equity. The lecture, established as part of the Sheiham Family/Wits Programme on Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequality, was held during a two-day joint conference organised by the Wits School of Public Health (SPH) in collaboration with the South African Medical Association (SAMA).
Around 150 national and international delegates attended the conference. Health inequity, a broad concept that refers to disparities in health that are consequences of systemic, avoidable and unjust social and economic policies and practices that create barriers to opportunity was the main theme of the conference. A wide range of topics covered at the conference included: progress and challenges in combatting health inequities, the role of health professional associations and policy makers in addressing the social determinants of health and advocacy and action needed to ensure that social determinants of health are prioritized in South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world, the burden of non-communicable and communicable disease, decolonising health sciences education and constitutional obligations in addressing health inequities and moving towards universal health coverage.
The conference precedes the start of the Sheiham family/Wits research programme on social determinants of health and health inequities at the SPH, which will include inter alia, provision of PhD fellowships, and participation in a broad research programme on strengthening the evidence on health inequities and strategies to address these.