SIMASHE work in Regions and Countries

During Phase I, SIMASHE was developed and made active through collaborations among three WHO regions and eight Country Pathfinders. Key highlights from the work in these regions and countries are described here.

In Phase II, SIMAHSE will aim to further include two affiliate countries from the African region. Additionally, new countries and local areas or districts may join in future years.

Each WHO regional office and each country has its own priorities and methods, which fosters a diverse approach to health equity. However, a core emphasis for these regions and countries will be to lead the way in terms of dissemination and application of recommendations from the WHO World report on social determinants of health equity.

During Phase I, countries, territories and local areas were selected based on criteria such as vulnerability (poverty or low development), political commitment to addressing Social Determinants of Health Equity (SDHE), the impact of COVID-19 in severely affected areas, engagement from WHO offices, ties to the healthy cities movement, and potential for lessons applicable to other countries in the region.

• Pan American Regional Office( AMRO/PAHO) -  Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru
• Regional Office of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) – Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem)
• WPRO (Lao People's Democratic Republic, Philippines)
• AFRO (Algeria and Zambia).

While every country, territory and local area has its unique circumstances, there is a common strategic approach, as reflected in the main SIMASHE theory of change applicable to advance health equity. Each region has applied the theory of change to its context, and committed to enhancing the SIMASHE learning mechanism, including implementation of the world report recommendations and the application of the WHO SDHE Monitoring Framework.