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WHO responds to findings of UCL-led commission with landmark resolution

The World Health Organisation (WHO) agreed a landmark resolution in response to the final report of the UCL-led Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was chaired by Professor Sir Michael Marmot (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health). 

The report, published in August 2008, contained three overarching recommendations:

• improve daily living conditions;
• tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money, and resources;
• measure and understand the problem and assess the impact of action.

In May 2009, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution which charged the World Health Organisation to work with countries to follow up these recommendations. Health ministers and senior health officials from 192 countries agreed to:

• call upon the international community to take note of the findings;
• collaborate to assess the impacts of policies and programmes on health inequalities;
• work together to enhance health equity;
• to consider health equity as they work toward core global development goals.

A number of countries are now developing national strategies to measure and address social determinants of health inequities.

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