Advocacy for Health Equity
Claudia Marinetti - Research Manager
Linden Farrer, Caroline Costongs
7th European Public Health Conference, November 2014
In collaboration with:
DRIVERS is co-ordinated by EuroHealthNet and has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n°278350
Advocacy toolkit
Case studies & interviews
Discussion paper &
workshop
Literature review & advocacy mapping
To understand, synthesise and
build upon existing knowledge
and develop practicable and
effective methodologies for
promoting health equity within
the DRIVERS project
and beyond
Aims and activities
Definition & dimensions
Advocacy for health
equity: “a deliberate
attempt to influence
decision makers and other
stakeholders to support or
implement policies that
contribute to improving
health equity using
evidence”
Advocacy for health equity: a synthesis review
Aim: To bring together, for the first time, all evidence on
practices that can aid advocacy efforts
Methods: Qualitative synthesis methodology. Systematic
search of academic and grey literature.
– Academic: 21,425 papers > 137
– Grey: Google 248 > 59
Analysis of 196 pieces of evidence and synthesis
according to the ‘six dimensions of advocacy’
Experts workshop
Aim: To analyse initial findings and fill gaps with the help of
selected experts
Methods: The interactive workshop was attended by 20
experts from across Europe
– Brainstorming, open discussion and feedback sessions
– Label generation
– Sentence completion/categorisation
– Fixed-diagram exercises
Post hoc analysis of results
Grounding some of the findings
Case Studies: Health 2015 (Finland), Children health in
disadvantaged families (Netherlands), Think Family (England), Food
aid for deprived children (Greece), Mental Health First Aid (Wales)
Methods:
– Standardised reporting guidance
– Analysis of documentary materials
– Semi-structured interviews and coding, questionnaires
– Preparation of advocacy materials and events
Analysis focused on common and divergent findings
Conclusions and recommendations
Evidence is unlikely to be the only conclusive factor in policy
decisions, and policy makers value a variety of different kinds
of evidence that do not necessarily accord with the ‘hierarchy
of evidence’
Evidence should be translated for different audiences; it
needs to be easy to understand, contain key facts, avoid
jargon and present a balance of different kinds of evidence.
Value of different kinds of advocacy message(s):
Importance of tailoring, context. Health/health equity or the
SDH? Health as a value, social justice, economic and human
rights arguments, sustainability and self-interest
Conclusions and recommendations
Science and advocacy: Scientists can have a clear role to
play in advocacy, but some issues of compatibility exist.
Advocacy organisations can bridge evidence and policy
Need for capacity : Individual and organisational capacities
including inclination, the valuable contribution of people
experiencing exclusion to advocacy
Barriers: a pervasive zeitgeist that blames people for their
ill health, biomedical approaches and political short-termism
Enablers: increased public understanding of SDH, greater
contact with disadvantage in syllabuses and training in
advocacy, enabling value of overlooked allies
Research to support advocacy efforts
Evaluations of policies particularly their differential effects
across the social gradient, for discrete social groups.
ROI/cost-benefit
Applied research to support policy strategies, particularly
examples of cross-sectoral collaboration, proportionate
universalism, the life-course approach, etc.
Much more rigorous and large-scale qualitative research
on the SDH
Research on tailoring messages in Europe
Research and evaluation of advocacy efforts.
DRIVERS at theEuropean Parliament!
3 February 2015
For more information:
Visit the website: www.health-gradient.eu
Follow us on Twitter @DRIVERS4equity
Contact [email protected]
Coming soon!ADVOCACY ONLINE TOOL
Top Related