- Trainer/in: Claire Somerville
The WHO estimates that every day 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth; 87% of premature deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) occur in low- and middle-income countries; male life expectancy in the Scottish city of Glasgow ranges from 62.2 years in the inner city to 81.7 years in the suburbs, just 2km away: Why are such health inequalities so persistent despite local, national and global interventions?
This interdisciplinary course examines the social, political, commercial and economic determinants of health as a lens on the structural and systemic factors that produce health inequalities. Foregrounding an intersectionality approach to the multiple and intersecting drivers of health inequalities, the course will provoke students to think through innovative policies, practices and interventions that seek to address root causes ranging from global and geopolitical poverty, resource distribution, health system access and the challenges of Universal Health access (UHC) to structural discriminations associated with, for example, race, class, gender, sexuality, ableism, religion, migration and citizenship, indigeneity and colonialism.
The course will engage students in active and collaborative processes including use of the WHO Health Inequality Data Repository and qualitative lived-experience sources as case studies to support problem-based learning approaches in to tackling health inequalities between and within health systems and countries. Students will critically engage with contemporary global debates on ways to tackle such inequalities and the roles of global health actors such as WHO, the World Bank, the Global Fund, etc. can shape a future that ensures the fair and equal rights to health for all.