About Health Equity and Sustainable Development Goals
A publicly accessible and interactive space that brings together a wide network of researchers, actors and stakeholders pursuing and supporting the Arab region to achieve equity in health and wellbeing, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What We do?
Contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development agenda, especially goal number 3 and 10 in the Arab region through:
- Facilitating an open space for interactions and participation among researchers, actors and stakeholders
- Availing wide scope of resources, tools and training materials with the aim of building capacities in addressing different dimensions of health and assessing health equity
- Building effective partnerships, and learning from shared experiences
Our Focus
The platform focuses on equity in health and health-related SDGs. It is guided by the multilevel framing of social determinants of health, and by the SDG as a core driver of wellbeing and health. The intersection between health and other sustainable development goals is highlighted. Health-centered topics such as sexual and reproductive health and rights, communicable and non-communicable diseases, healthy aging, mental health, health information system, and universal health coverage are investigated from a wider social perspective. Addressing health and vulnerability in emergency situations, including promoting the health of migrants, refugees and displaced populations are also addressed.
Our main directions for research and shared experience are guided by general frameworks for:
- Social justice and health equity (HE)
- Social determinants of health (SDH)
Who We Are
The Social Research Center is the implementer and coordinator of the platform. Our lead organizers are Hoda Rashad, Zeinab Khadr, Sherine Shawky, Ramadan Hamed supported by a large team including Mohamed Hassan, Amr el Sayed AbdelLatief and Noha Gafar.
Our Network
Our network aims at efficiently pooling together the resources and expertise of a diverse set of regional actors. Compatibility of vision and goals and complementarity of focuses and approaches are the guiding principles in our network building.
Click on the links below to read more about each member of the network and to access relevant portals, virtual platforms, or websites. Links to partners’ news, events, and tangible products are made accessible through our community section.
Phase I
The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) Sustainable Development Goals learning platform was launched in 2019. The platform was a collaboration between the Social Research Center (SRC) of the American University in Cairo (AUC), the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and the Division of Health Protection and Promotion at the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.
The platform's main objective was to provide the required infrastructure for the knowledge exchange channel to address goal number 3 in the SDG, health-related targets and universal health coverage. It also allowed space for interactions and stakeholders' contribution as well as identify relevant national and regional findings and links to important relevant sites.
The first phase has concluded with two reports. The first is a narrative report detailing activities and outputs. The second is a synthesis report summarizing the main contributions to knowledge. In particular, the report addresses the following four questions: What have we learned; what are the enabling factors; what are the key challenges; where do we go from here.
Phase II
This phase relaunches The Eastern Mediterranean Region Sustainable Development Goals (EMR-SDGS) learning platform as a revised and expanded version (Health Equity and SDG platform). The revised platform is hosted by the SRC website at AUC. The second phase has received support from the United Nations Population Funds/Arab States (UNFPA/ASRO), and American University in Beirut through a grant from International Development Research Center (IDRC). It widens the scope of the first phase by incorporating new topics in focus such as healthy aging, health information systems, etc. It also includes added emphasis on enhancing the discussion forums, training material as well as an exchange of research findings.