Health Equity: Our Global Responsibility Conference

Health Equity: Our Global Responsibility
16th Annual Canadian Conference on International Health

Sunday, October 25th to Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Website: http://www.csih.org/en/ccih/index.asp

The Conference will examine inequities of health status, and the impact on the health of marginalized, vulnerable and Indigenous populations of changing environments, whether these changes are due to climate, technology, the economy or threats to human security.

Presentations exploring lessons learned and new ways of understanding health equity and social justice locally, nationally and globally are invited.

The Call for Abstracts for Papers and Posters will be open on February 25, 2009.

Anticipated outcomes of the conference will be:
1. evidence of improvements in social determinants and their impacts on health and social outcomes
2. evidence of the impact of environmental technological and economic change on health equity
3. consideration of the need for a paradigm shift in intersectoral policy and practice, locally, nationally and internationally
4. a summary of the current thought and discourse on Canada’s responsibility, in Canada and globally, for health equity and social justice
(addressing our original 1948 commitment), and proposed ways forward.

THEME AREAS (Note: Global, National and Local experiences will be welcome on each day)
Day 1: Ethics and Responsibility, Economics and Social Determinants
§ Economics: Achieving the MDGs: Hope or Despair
§ Ethics: Partnerships and Capacity
§ Social Determinants of Health: Evidence, Achievements and Challenges
§ Searching for Social Justice: Achievements and Challenges

Day 2: Global Health Diplomacy (GHD)
§ Social reform, responsibility, accountability:
§ Global Health Diplomacy and the G8
§ Diplomacy and Ethical Aid
§ Responsible Health Security: Ethics and Reality
§ Health in all policies: The Role of Global Health Diplomacy
§ Role of academe/ the role of civil society in Global Health Diplomacy: Training and capacity building and action
§ Indigenous participation and perspectives

Day 3: Social Determinants of Health: Think Globally, Act Locally
§ Rolling out the MDGs
§ Implementing the Social Determinants of Health: What’s Working
§ Advocacy and Social Determinants of Health: Does It Work?
§ Sustainable Environments in the Context of Global Change
§ Social Determinants of Health and Vulnerable Populations: Evidence and Action
§ Indigenous World Views and Contribution to Social Determinants of Health