Our Advocacy

1. Planetary Health and Human Health

Planetary and human health are a key focus of ZWDP advocacy and synergize with the education and training both in universities and in schools.

ZWDP advocacy draws on publications including ‘Planetary health benefits from strengthening health workforce education on the social determinants of health‘

ZWDP is actively engaged in research and action on the social determinants of health and lifelong learning.

The social determinants of health (SDH) are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of everyday life.

These forces and systems include the economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems. The SDH have an important influence on health inequities – the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries. In countries at all levels of incline, health and illness follow a social gradient: the lower the socioeconomic position, the worse the health”

Reference WHO webpage

2. Climate Change and Health

The Sustainability in Healthcare and Education 3 day conference held during the COP26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow Scotland highlighted the complex challenges facing the health sector through the lens of oral health.

This conference and its sessions have catalysed ‘news ways of thinking, and new ways of working’ and introduced the concept and model for sustainable oral health.

Reference article US National Academy of Medicine; Achieving Oral Health for All though Public Health Approaches, Interprofessional and Transdisciplinary Education.

3. Sustainable Mountain Development and Health

In 2021 the Zero Water Day Partnership with the support of the Mountain Partnership launched the Children’s Call To Action to protect mountain areas against the impacts of climate change at a virtual side event during the COP21 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow Scotland.

View the recording of Day 3; Transforming Our World; Children’s Voices for 2050.

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