Events: WHO High-level Conference on Health Equity

DATE

12/06/2019

On 11-12 June 2019, Ricardo Rodigues participated as an expert in the WHO High-level Conference on Health Equity in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

This Conference gathered experts and policy representatives from the WHO European region to discuss policies and practices to enhance Health Equity. Ricardo Rodrigues presented on the need for a gender framework to impact on gender inequalities in long-term care. The presentation was based on ongoing research in the context of the FUTUREGEN project and on the joint work carried out with the gender and rights programmes at the WHO, the latter as part of a secondment with the WHO Europe in May/June.

While a number of health indicators are improving across the region (e.g. life expectancy and infant mortality), there has also been a widening of inequalities (e.g. based on gender and socio-economic condition). Equity features prominently in both the Health 2020 European health policy framework and in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Equity considerations extend also to long-term care for older people. Not only do inequalities in health have a strong impact on needs and living arrangements of older people, there are also marked inequalities in how long-term care is provided. For example, the overwhelming majority of the long-term care workforce is female. Women make up for the majority of informal carers, but the probability to provide informal care is actually higher among men in the higher age groups. These were just some of the examples of the gendered nature of long-term care presented at the conference.