Summit 2017: Health Equity in the Americas
Examining and building strategies for health equity
November 14-15, 2017
Cuernavaca, Mexico
A collaborative effort of:
Agenda: TBA
You may contact the project manager, Andrea Leiva, for further information at andrealeiva@mednet.ucla.edu
This has all been made possible thanks to the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundaation
Health inequities across the Americas persist, and in some cases, are widening. While health is recognized as a fundamental human right, health inequities, which are avoidable, obstruct individuals and communities from achieving their best health and development potential. To understand and put forward proposals to address these inequities, the UCLA Blum Center on Poverty and Health in Latin America, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and the WORLD Policy Analysis Center will hold a two-day summit during November 14-15, 2017. The Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (National Institute of Public Health) of México will host the meetings at its Cuernavaca campus. Findings and discussions from the Summit are intended to help inform policies and practices in the participating nations.
Entitled Summit 2017: Health Equity in the Americas, this convening builds on the work of the PAHO Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas (the Commission) and will take place in collaboration with leaders from countries of Latin America and North America. In addition, the UCL Institute of Health Equity will lend expertise and the WORLD Policy Analysis Center will bring comprehensive global social policy data to assist in examining potential solutions at a national and regional scale to health inequities.
The Program. During this two-day, action-oriented health equity meeting, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), we will lay the groundwork for new analysis, ultimately helping to move the needle in the development of health equity solutions for nations in both Latin and North America. The purpose of this convening is three-fold:
- To expand and advance the work of the PAHO Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas. Sessions will explore best approaches to addressing marginalization including across gender, race/ethnicity, class and other social determinants of health.
- To exchange information gathered from existing Latin American regional efforts as well as global policy databases such as the WORLD Policy Analysis Database to advance goals related to health equity.
- To bring together an international group of public health, health care, social policy and systems experts and leaders from Latin America, the United States, the UK and other global areas. This group will set the stage to address the need for ongoing sharing, collaboration and advancement of this work to promote health equity.
Focus areas of the Summit will be framed by the action areas and drivers linked with the RWJF Culture of Health initiative: 1) making health a shared value; 2) fostering cross-sector collaboration; 3) creating healthier, more equitable communities; and 4) strengthening integration of health services and systems.
Within this framework, the sessions will address what works to reduce inequities including how to reduce social and economic inequalities across groups and increase social connectedness. Potential topics include:
- Similarities and differences in drivers of the major forces of marginality between countries
- Intersectionality of marginality and factors such as gender equity and discrimination based on race/ethnicity, religion, national origin, disability, SOGI, and other features
- Approaches to reducing economic and social marginalization
- Gender equity policies and programming related to health equity
- Social cohesion policies and programming related to health equity
- Sustainability of social cohesion-driven programming
At the same time, the topics and focus areas will build on the work the Commission in the areas of social and biological factors and the life course as well as select areas of socioeconomic and political context, such as governance, and pathways to health, including social cohesion.
The Participants. The Summit will rely on expertise of approximately 50 health equity leaders who will represent health-related organizations from nations throughout North and South America. We will invite leaders in positions that can influence policy, programming and efforts to reduce health inequities in the nations and the region. We will invite researchers, scholars, and professionals who are renowned for their work from multiple disciplines including: social policy, public health, business, public affairs, clinical, and health care delivery. Participants will represent both local- and state/national-level professionals.
Expected Outcomes. The two-day session will support the work of health equity experts who engage in meaningful discussions and provide direction in their home nations and the region to drive policy and other changes to affect health equity. The session will advance the embedding of concepts, best practices and policies on health equity into RWJF’s Culture of Health Initiative in the United States. Ultimately, with the depth of the proposed action-oriented sessions and the expertise of participants, we believe the two-day meeting will result in well-identified pathways for tangible steps to take to address health inequities across all countries in the Americas. We will produce a brief/report to inform and serve as a guide post for health equity efforts in the Americas. Finally, we envision that this meeting will strengthen collaborative networking dedicated to an understanding and building of ideas on how to expand and generate health equity knowledge-sharing.
Check Back December 2017 for Post-Meeting Materials
