Governing for Health: Advancing Health and Equity through Policy and Advocacy
Fran Baum
Abstract
Governing for Health makes the argument that it is vital that governments and international agencies govern in the interests of protecting the environment and promoting human health and equity. A healthy society results from the organized efforts of every sector in society to promote health in all activities. The book examines how this can be done in the fiscal, health service, education, urban planning, environment, and local government sectors. It also promotes the crucial role of civil society in advocating for the health of people and the environment. The importance of the work of each sec ... More
Governing for Health makes the argument that it is vital that governments and international agencies govern in the interests of protecting the environment and promoting human health and equity. A healthy society results from the organized efforts of every sector in society to promote health in all activities. The book examines how this can be done in the fiscal, health service, education, urban planning, environment, and local government sectors. It also promotes the crucial role of civil society in advocating for the health of people and the environment. The importance of the work of each sector to health is described, and the ways in which that work can be made more health promoting are examined. Each chapter contains practical examples of changes that can be made if governing for health is privileged. A key message of the book is that in the last decades economic considerations have come to dominate public decision-making so that governing for profit has been the single-minded aim of governments. The book argues passionately that new priorities are required that see all sectors governing for the needs of people and the environment rather than for short-term profits. The book also contains a chapter directed to politicians, suggesting a manifesto for well-being. It concludes by distilling the messages of the book into six central messages for governing for health, and ends with a plea that hope and courage should dominate decision-making.
Keywords:
social determinants of health,
health in all policies,
health equity,
political economy public policy,
health promotion,
well-being
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190258948 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2019 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190258948.001.0001 |
