Symposium of Medicus Mundi Switzerland. “Inequity is one of the strongest drivers of poor health within populations. Health equity resonates with the SDGs’ overarching principle of leaving no one behind and the implicit moral imperative of social justice. Health inequities are systematic differences in the health status of different population groups related e.g. to poverty, disability, race, class and gender. These inequities have significant social and economic costs both to individuals and population groups and are judged to be avoidable, unfair, and unjust.Inequity hinders access to power, resources and finances and makes it by this difficult to build a healthy population within a country or a region. Improving equity within the health sector as well as in those sectors that are influencing health outcomes remains a challenge within international health cooperation as well as on the political level. Achieving health equity requires communities to work together to change policies and practices in order to create access, resources and opportunities that contribute to overall health and wellbeing for ALL people. It requires to address not only epidemiological and demographic issues related to equity but also to look into policies, institutions, politics and power.
Three key elements of the MMS Symposium 2019:
- Understanding: What are the underlying root causes? Who is affected? What is the current state of evidence?
- Learning: What can public health programs do to improve health equity?
- Debating: How can Switzerland play a significant role to address health inequities?
