Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health by World Health Organization

by World Health Organization

The Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health sets out key areas–of daily living conditions and of the underlying structural drivers that influence them–in which action is needed. It provides analysis of social determinants of health and concrete examples of actions that have proven effective in improving health and health equity in countries at all levels of socioeconomic development.

Part 1 lays out the rationale for a global movement to advance health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Part 2 outlines the approach the Commission took to evidence, and to the indispensable value of acknowledging and using the rich diversity of different types of knowledge. Parts 3, 4, and 5 set out in more detail the Commission’s findings and recommendations. Part 6, finally, reprises the global networks–the regional connections to civil society worldwide, the growing caucus of country partners taking the social determinants of health agenda forward, the vital research agendas, and the opportunities for change at the level of global governance and global institutions–that the Commission has built and on which the future of a global movement for health equity will depend.

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Published January 1, 1656

About the author

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations.

The constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by 61 countries on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office international d'hygiène publique and the League of Nations Health Organization. Since its creation, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health, development, and aging; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; and driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.

The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, a leading international publication on health, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day (7 April of every year)