Public policy plays a central role in creating and distributing resources and conditions of daily life that matter for health equity. Policy agendas for health have tended to focus on health care delivery and individualised interventions. Asking why there is a lack of policy action on the structural drivers of health inequities raises questions about power inequities in policy systems that maintain the status quo.

In this webinar Sharon Friel will discuss key findings from a health equity power analysis of multisectoral policies including trade, paid parental leave, Northern Territory Emergency Response and urban planning.

About the speaker

Sharon Friel is an ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Health Equity and Director of the ANU Menzies Centre for Health Governance in RegNet. Sharon is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and Co-Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity. Her 2019 book, Climate Change and the People’s Health highlights the importance of addressing the consumptogenic system.

Her Laureate Fellowship project will use the lens of planetary health equity, defined as the environmentally sustainable and equitable enjoyment of good health, to advance our understanding of the interactions between climate change and health inequity, and create a new field of governance for planetary health equity.

This event will be delivered online only via Zoom.

Image credit: Image of mural spelling out ‘equity’ by BruceEmmerling

Other events in the MCHG 2021 webinar series:

Webinar 2 - The politics of regulating baby food in global context

Thursday 11 November | 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Speaker: Phil Baker

View Webinar 2 details and webinar registration here.

Webinar 3 - Theory of action underpinning people’s power: the case of the People’s Health Movement

Thursday 18 November | 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Speaker: Fran Baum

View Webinar 3 details and webinar registration here.

Webinar 4 - Bureaucratic power: city planning minus the politics

Thursday 25 November | 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Speaker: Patrick Harris

View Webinar 4 details and webinar registration here.