Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Equity in health can be understood in various ways. For example, whether it be in terms of geography (e.g. inter- vs. intra- country vs. city), ideology (e.g. neoliberalism), ideas about the role of government policy, and areas for action (e.g. equity in terms of distribution of resources). Because there are inherent cultural and other differences in the definition of equity, this presentation is focused on analyzing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) discourses around equity, given the prominent role the WHO plays in global health policy. Very little analyses of WHO’s equity discourse(s) have previously been conducted and are quite dated (e.g. “What does equity in health mean?”, 1987). As such, it is impactful to assess current discourses of equity, particularly after the Commission on Social Determinants of Health was formed by the WHO to focus on related issues (from 2005-2008). Therefore, this research assesses the state of the literature through conducting a systematic search (reviewing both Ovid: Medline and SCOPUS databases), along with hand-searching pertinent papers for analysis. The results demonstrate that there are a limited number of papers discussing the WHO’s discourses of equity. However, looking to the extracted citations, interesting results have emerged, such as: trends around when and where this scholarship has largely been produced and what this entails, the use of theory and relevant implications, and conclusions authors point to. These, along with other pertinent findings, will be discussed in this session.