There are four broad, interrelated areas through which the health sector can make a useful contribution to action on the social determinants of health:
- Contributing to broader SDH governance
- Addressing issues systematically affecting all areas of health systems e.g. equity in access
- Building SDH perspectives into health systems functions
- Adjusting public health programmes to address SDH.
For more information on health systems actions for the social determinants of health see the WHO (EURO) database: Resource of health system actions on socially determined health inequalities.
For more resources on health policy analysis and development, with a focus on Africa, please see the recently launched hub for Health Policy and Systems Resources.