Report 2/2015
DRIVERS for Health Equity - Summary of Evidence and Recommendations by Peter Goldblatt, Johannes Siegrist, Claudia Marinetti, Caroline Costongs, Linden Farrer

DRIVERS for Health Equity - Summary of Evidence and Recommendations

.pdfDRIVERS for Health Equity - Summary of Evidence and Recommendations
Summary

On Tuesday 3 February 2015, DRIVERS showcased its recommendations for improving health equity at its conference ‘Tackling societal challenges: solutions from DRIVERS for Health Equity’.

For more than three years, scientists, civil society organisations, and representatives from public health and businesses collaborated to explore how health equity can be improved across policy sectors, through action on three of the most important drivers of health: early childhood, employment & working conditions, and income & social protection.

As a result of their efforts, DRIVERS has identified four principles by which decision makers can design better and ‘healthier’ policies addressing the challenges of our time to help create a fairer Europe. These overarching principles can be applied to any policy context and can bring potential added value especially during times of crisis and cuts to public social spending.

Prof. Sir Michael Marmot, in his keynote speech, outlined how the principles of ensuring universality of access to services while addressing disadvantage, accounting for context and respecting rights of people concerned and ensuring that policies are evidence-based can guide the development and implementation of policies to improve health and reduce health inequalities. 

Addition - June 2015 - Ensuring an inclusive recovery for all: Renewing support for EU-level collaboration to tackle the social determinants of health - European Comission Statement - Full Speech