Dedicated to the inception of an “Indian Health Equity Watch”, WHO Country Office for India and Public Health Foundation of India co-organized a workshop in New Delhi on 20-21 June 2013.
The workshop was convened to promote equity in health as the core value and the objective of Indian health systems, in support of the implementation of the 12th Five Year Plan on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), as well as the recommendations on social determinants of health of India’s High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on UHC.
The specific objectives of the workshop included:
- Providing exposure to WHO frameworks, guidance and approaches for health equity surveillance, as well as qualitative approaches to understanding and incorporating a SDH (social determinants of health) approach in health services/interventions;
- Commencing work on a shortlist of indicators, methodologies and data sources for health equity surveillance in India;
- Identifying examples of the institutionalisation – at various scales – of a health equity surveillance framework in India and internationally (in BRICS countries specifically);
- Commencing the process for developing a road-map for institutionalising a Health Equity Watch (HEW) at appropriate scale within India;
- Identifying potential partners (individuals, organizations, and institutions) that can provide methodological expertise and well as implementation support for a health equity surveillance system at the community, state, and national levels.