Acting President of Brazil, Mr Michel Temer addressing delegates during the opening session.

Rio de Janeiro, 19 October 2011 -- The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan has called for increased awareness, action and accountability (the “3-As”) by all Member States in addressing social determinants of health (SDH).

She made the call while addressing delegates at the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, which began is taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 19-21 October 2011. The three-day event is organised by the World Health Organization and hosted by the Government of the Republic of Brazil.

The conference officially opened by the Acting President of Brazil, Mr. Michael Temer, is attended by 124 Member States represented by Ministers of Health, and Ministers from other sectors such as finance, education and social affairs. Thirty four countries and 14 Health Ministers from the WHO African Region are participating in the conference.

In her remarks, WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan thanked the Government of Brazil for hosting the historical global event, and commended Brazil for its strong civil society organization movement responsible  not only for advocating for health reforms in the country but also for bringing about the recognition of health beyond the biomedical spheres.

The WHO Director-General spoke of the globalization realities facing most countries today saying that the unfair distribution of the benefits of globalization coupled with unresponsive health polices had resulted in the widening of the disparities between and within countries.  She stressed the role of the health sector in bringing other sectors together in addressing social determinants of health. “There is enough knowledge to act on the social determinants of health, the anticipated results are known – greater social cohesion, security and stability – we need to bring other sectors to act on these”, Dr. Chan said.

Dr Chan noted that the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health was being held on the 25th anniversary of the Ottawa Conference for Health Promotion which initially highlighted the need to involve other players in promoting health. Governance, participation, strengthening the role of the health sector, global actions and monitoring of progress remain important elements from the Ottawa Conference.

The Rio Declaration on the Social Determinants of Health, the main outcome of the conference, will provide high-level political support for action on SDH and will provide the necessary technical knowledge and skills to help close the implementation gap in addressing SDH.

The official opening of the conference was followed by a high level round table discussion moderated by Zeinab Badawi from the BBC World.  Members of the panel  were; Dr Margaret Chan; Ms Terezo Campello, Minister for Social Development, Brazil;   Andreas Loverdos, Minister of Health and Social Solidarity of Greece; Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, United States of America; Ms. Rebecca Grynspan, Associate Administrator UNDP and Mr Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS. During the discussions, the WHO Director-General spoke on innovative ways of multi-sectoral approaches to address the challenges of SDH towards achieving sustainable development. She emphasized the importance of monitoring progress and positioning WHO to support Member States in this area. The WHO Director General concluded with a call for increased awareness, action and accountability (the “3-As”) by all Member States in addressing SDH.

Members of the panel spoke on issues related to the structural determinants that produce health, and specifically, on the role of micro financing in addressing inequities in health; the need for structural health reforms. Governance, promoting health and development as a goal were also addressed. The panellists agreed on the need for building a broad base including civil society and communities to address social determinants of health.