Widening health inequities are undermining trust in institutions, reinforcing social fractures and leaving excluded communities further behind. Narrowing the health gap, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, is not only a matter of social justice, but it is also essential to build trust, social cohesion and economic resilience.
The cost of living is rising at a time when countries and their citizens are still dealing with extensive effects of the pandemic. New challenges are being layered on top of enduring impacts of previous crises; they are widespread and unequally impact people’s health, the security and quality of their living, working and learning conditions, i.e. the social determinants of health. Failure to mitigate these short- and longer-term consequences exacerbates vulnerabilities and leaves people inadequately protected against future challenges.
Five factors determine inequities in health and well-being in the WHO European Region:
- healthy living conditions – safe and affordable homes, safe neighbourhoods and availability of local opportunities/amenities to be healthy and thrive equally;
- healthy employment and working conditions – decent wages, employment contracts and security; gender-responsive employment practices and pay; and active labour market policies;
- health services – quality accessibility and affordability of promotion, prevention and treatment services and social prescribing;
- healthy education and social relationships – trust in other people and authorities, access to social support, lifelong learning and education; and
- healthy income security – social protection.
The Venice Office’s social determinants of health programme supports government, the social economy, civil society and businesses to reduce health inequities by investing in policies for healthy living, working and learning conditions, and measuring the progress and impact of these policies on health equity and improvements in social and economic cohesion locally, nationally and across the European Region.
The Venice Office is the home of the groundbreaking WHO European Health Equity Status Report initiative, supporting countries with:
- metrics, evidence, technical assistance and promising practices to reduce socially determined health inequities;
- national health equity policy assessments;
- equity-proofing of health and cross-sectoral policies and interventions;
- interactive data tools for health equity planning and prioritization;
- regional progress monitoring of the status, trends and distributional impact of investment in healthy living, working and learning conditions;
- training and capacity building for planners and policy-makers; and
- health equity alliances.