The world has seen considerable health gains over the last century, but their distribution is vastly unequal. This has led to inequities in health – avoidable and unfair differences in health status between groups of people or communities. COVID-19 has magnified and exposed those health inequities at the same time as providing a stark reminder to everyone, everywhere, that without our health, we have nothing.

The impacts of the pandemic have fallen so unequally that the Member States of WHO, in resolution 74.16 of the 2021 World Health Assembly (WHA), requested the Director-General “to prepare, building on the report of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (2008) and subsequent work, an updated report based on scientific evidence, knowledge and best practices on social determinants of health, their impact on health and health equity, progress made so far in addressing them, and recommendations on future actions…”

The ‘World Report’ provides the opportunity to set the agenda for the next ten years for action on the social determinants of health. In addition a new Monitoring Framework, also requested to be produced by the Executive Board in early 2023, will enable progress on the social determinants of health to be tracked, with actions prioritized to advance health equity. 

At the same time the WHO Multi-Country Special Initiative for Action on the Social Determinants of Health for Advancing Health Equity has the goal to improve the social determinants of health for at least 20 million disadvantaged people in at least 12 countries by 2028.