The book offers a clear and detailed understanding of health inequalities and the importance of monitoring them. Given Brazil's socioeconomic and regional diversity, understanding these inequalities and tracking their changes can be crucial for formulating more targeted and effective health policies. The monitoring approaches discussed in the book can be adapted to the reality in Brazil – or other countries – allowing managers and researchers to select appropriate methods for municipal, state and national levels, and enabling horizontal and vertical analyses among federal entities. Additionally, it addresses how to adapt monitoring and evaluation strategies to different contexts, a point particularly relevant in Brazil, where realities vary widely across aspects such as population profile, urban or rural areas, regions of the country, income and more. The idea that monitoring and evaluation are shared responsibilities can reinforce the importance of collaboration among different sectors and levels of government in the country, including civil society, academia and research institutions. The book provides valuable guidance on how to coordinate different sectors of society for effective and coordinated action.

Health inequality monitoring: harnessing data to advance health equity is an essential resource for public health professionals, policy-makers and researchers committed to advancing health equity. Bringing together existing resources and the latest scientific knowledge, this book introduces innovations in health inequality monitoring that highlight the importance of stakeholder engagement, data governance and advancements in methods, data collection and analysis. This comprehensive guide will serve as a tool to empower countries to make informed, inclusive and equitable decisions to improve the health and well-being of all people.

In this resource, the World Health Organization provides an essential framework for understanding and addressing one of the most pressing issues in public health today. As a minister of health, I find this book on health inequality monitoring invaluable for achieving universal health coverage and Sustainable Development Goals. It provides a clear, practical approach to complex issues, making it accessible to policy-makers, researchers and health professionals alike. This resource emphasizes the role of monitoring in governmental decision-making. It equips leaders with the tools to identify disparities, track progress and implement data-driven policies. Highlighting real-world examples and the latest methodologies demonstrates how to use health inequality data to allocate resources efficiently and design targeted interventions. This book is recommended for anyone committed to advancing health equity because it provides a comprehensive framework for identifying, measuring and addressing health disparities.

As countries strive towards achieving universal health coverage, to ensure that no one is left behind, addressing health inequalities is critical. There should be a process of using the available health service data and other data sources to identify communities, groups and individuals who are not benefiting equally from health interventions or are not having good health outcomes by reason of their sex, age profile, geographical location, education, wealth profile and other variables. This book will help countries build capacity to better monitor inequalities and make targeted interventions to address them. I endorse this book as a useful tool for the use of countries in our drive towards achieving universal health coverage.

I find the book very relevant to the ideals and aspirations of ensuring a healthy population for national development by eliminating health inequalities through the principles of whole-of-government and whole-of-society. Co-creating compelling evidence within inequality dimensions and monitoring them is a critical thing to do towards ensuring that health and wellbeing is assured for all people living in Ghana. I therefore fully endorse this document as an important resource for improving determinants of health evidence generation and knowledge transmission for policy action.

In today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, monitoring health inequalities is critical to identifying gaps in health outcomes, access and quality of care among different populations. This publication serves as an essential guide, providing a wealth of knowledge, tools and methodologies to better understand these disparities and, more importantly, to take informed actions to reduce them. We commend the World Health Organization for consolidating both foundational and cutting-edge knowledge on health inequality monitoring. By focusing on data-driven approaches, this book equips nations with the practical resources needed to harness data effectively and translate insights into equitable health policies and interventions. As we strive toward achieving universal health coverage and the broader goal of health equity, this publication will undoubtedly serve as an invaluable asset for policy-makers, health professionals and researchers alike. The Ministry of Health is committed to leveraging the insights from this publication to further our own efforts in reducing health disparities and ensuring that every individual, regardless of socioeconomic status, geography or demographic factors, has access to the highest standards of care. We extend our gratitude to the World Health Organization for this important contribution and strongly encourage health stakeholders around the world to utilize this resource to advance health equity for all.

The worst health problems in the world are mostly invisible to the public and to decision makers. This is because most health statistics are communicated as averages of total populations, while health problems are hiding in subpopulations. If all governments followed the practical guidance in this book for monitoring health inequalities, these invisible health issues would soon become visible. Monitoring health disparities is doable – and WHO has produced this book explaining how to do it. It contains all the know-how needed to start monitoring and communicating health disparities within populations, instead of just looking at total averages. The book compiles all the practical guidance needed to modernize the production and use of detailed statistics for any country, region or district. I seriously believe that monitoring health inequalities is one of the best ways to improve the world. When we monitor a problem, we can solve it – and making basic health care available to everyone would bring dignity to all of humankind and have enormous economic value.

Despite tremendous effort and technological advancement in health interventions and access, vulnerable populations disproportionately bear the burden of health inequity. Inequity in health is a signal of health system failure. Addressing these failures is a shared agenda across health programmes and levels of the system as those left out often face multiple deprivations. Harnessing the power of data helps us identify and understand the barriers to health. This book brings together the fundamental data and tools across health in a useful stepwise approach. The system for monitoring inequalities will enable even the most marginalized to be routinely visible and their challenges in accessing and receiving quality care, known. It allows for improved strategies to reach every community to save lives and protect people's health by expanding universal health coverage.

In a world where inequities continue to predispose people to diseases, the Global Fund is pleased to support the forthcoming WHO resource on inequality monitoring. This groundbreaking publication marks a significant milestone in our collective efforts to better understand and address health disparities that continue to affect the most marginalized communities worldwide. To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3, “health and well-being for all," we must understand these challenges and tackle them. At the Global Fund, our mission is deeply rooted in the principles of equity, as we strive to ensure no one is left behind in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. The need to generate, analyze and utilize high-quality, disaggregated data for decision-making is key to our mission. The resource equips multisectoral partnerships and stakeholders with the essential tools and frameworks to monitor and respond to the core drivers of health inequalities. It advocates for action to support people-centered intervention design and implementation while reinforcing rights-based and gender-transformative approaches to close the equity gap. We look forward to seeing how this resource will shape global health policies, strategies and programs in the years to come.

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, countries pledged to leave no one behind and committed to disaggregating data across various indicators to identify populations requiring additional efforts to achieve global goals. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted, although social and structural inequalities have a profound impact of on health outcomes, many countries face challenges in meeting their data commitments. We commend the World Health Organization's efforts to prioritize health inequalities on national agendas and strengthen capacity for monitoring and analysis. This timely book offers a crucial contribution to advancing inequality monitoring and building government capacity to address it. Granular data are essential for creating socially just health policies. Measuring and addressing health inequalities is not just technical—it's a political act and health advocates must champion both data disaggregation and action for health justice.

WHO's recent book on health inequality monitoring is an invaluable resource for anyone committed to advancing health equity. It offers comprehensive guidance on monitoring health inequalities, from data collection to analysis and reporting. The inclusion of real-world examples and case studies makes complex concepts accessible and practical. The book’s emphasis on evidence-informed decision-making and equity-oriented policy-making ensures that readers can apply the insights to drive meaningful change. Whether you’re a public health professional, researcher or student, this book equips you with the tools and knowledge to make a significant impact on health equity.

They say averages never lie – yet means and medians can hide a multitude. If we want to understand inequity and inequalities, we must carefully examine the distributions around those averages. Health inequality monitoring: harnessing data to advance health equity makes an important contribution to our understanding of health inequalities by taking the dedicated reader through the data lifecycle, from concepts and definitions, data sources, measurement approaches, to analyses and interpretation. But even the casual reader will be rewarded as they dip in and out of chapters and reflect on the hypothetical scenarios and real-world examples that illustrate graphically why health inequality matters.

This will be a tremendously useful resource for health researchers who wish to look beneath the surface of population averages to reveal and understand health inequalities—health differences associated with social disadvantage. The text has been carefully written to be as clear and free of jargon as possible, even when addressing technical issues. Given the clarity, data-savvy decision-makers also will find this publication useful and accessible. Concrete examples and graphics help make the text come alive. This is an important WHO contribution to efforts for greater equity. Equity means justice. Measurement and monitoring alone, without action and activism, will not achieve greater equity. But without measurement and monitoring of health inequalities, there is no accountability for the effects of policies on more and less advantaged groups of people. This impressive book will increase the likelihood that key evidence is present when decisions affecting health equity are made.

Monitoring is integral to improvement of health equity through actions on the social determinants of health and universal health coverage. As this vitally important book makes clear, many of the same principles apply both to actions and monitoring: clear conceptual understanding, involvement of affected communities alongside other important actors, technical excellence, timeliness. Without appropriate evidence, we are acting in the dark. This book brings the tools to shed light by showing how to conduct assessment of the problems of health inequity and its determinants, monitor progress and evaluate actions. Many of us have lamented the relative scarcity of evidence on health equity from countries and the lack of expertise to address the problem. This book shows what needs to be done – it brings together the expertise – and should make a major contribution in stimulating gathering of the kind of evidence that is vital. It is a needed step in advancing the cause of social justice and health. How on earth did we get this far without it? This will be the definitive text on the subject.

Health disparities are present wherever and whenever one seeks for them. Yet, missed opportunities for measuring, interpreting and acting upon health inequalities seem to be the rule rather than the exception. The greatest contribution of this book is addressing such missed opportunities by bringing it all together – namely, by summarizing the literature on monitoring health inequalities that was previously scattered across multiple publications. This comprehensive guide begins by defining health inequalities and demonstrating why it is essential to monitor them in order to guide efforts to eliminate them. Its methodological content is ample and robust, ranging from laying out the strengths and limitations of different data sources, describing methods for disaggregating indicators and calculating summary measures of inequality and lastly guiding the interpretation and dissemination of the resulting findings to policy-makers, health workers and the general population. With its broad scope and critical relevance to global health, this book will become an indispensable resource for policy-makers, researchers and public health professionals willing to implement evidence-informed, equity-oriented strategies.

Leaving no one behind is a core component of universal health coverage, but its realization remains elusive. Limitations in available approaches to monitor health inequalities partially explain the difficulties encountered in developing tailored interventions and policies. This book is a good resource from several perspectives: the use of inclusive terminology, the provision of more granular and precise approaches, the focus on previously overlooked groups such as migrants and the emphasis on intersectionality, which are strong additions to harness data to tackle inequalities. Noteworthy is the guidance provided on the use of qualitative and quantitate approaches, and involvement of a variety of stakeholder groups which illuminate our understanding of the deep-rooted causes of persistent inequalities. The book is timely, as we ramp up efforts to achieve universal health coverage. I emphasize the need to strengthen data systems and build in-country analytical capacity to ensure the maximum use of this resource at the country level.

The book offers a comprehensive and insightful approach to health inequality monitoring within countries. It bridges the gap between theory and practice by providing practical tools and methodologies that are essential for policy-makers, public health professionals and researchers. The book's emphasis on disaggregated data, combined with its actionable guidance, positions it as a critical resource for those committed to reducing health disparities and achieving equitable health outcomes. By systematically addressing the complexities of health inequality, this work will undoubtedly empower countries to implement more effective and targeted interventions, making it a valuable contribution to global health equity efforts. Its impact lies in its ability to translate complex data into actionable insights, thus guiding the practice of health inequality monitoring with precision and relevance.

As the Regional Director of the WHO African Region, I am delighted to endorse the book Health inequality monitoring: harnessing data to advance health equity. This essential resource equips countries with the tools needed to better utilize data in addressing health inequalities and ensuring that no one is left behind. The book provides clear explanations, practical examples and comprehensive technical guidance, blending foundational knowledge with the latest scientific insights. It is an invaluable asset for anyone dedicated to leveraging data to promote health equity in the African Region, particularly in identifying populations that are significantly behind in meeting their health needs.

This comprehensive and timely document on health inequality monitoring represents a key tool to position health equity at the center of health policy development, implementation and monitoring. By emphasizing the need to monitor and address health disparities, the book offers a crucial resource for advancing health equity. Its structured approach—covering data collection, analysis and application of health inequality insights—ensures it is both accessible and actionable. This resource is essential for policy-makers, researchers and public health professionals seeking to understand and redress global health inequities, ultimately contributing to a fairer and healthier world for all.

As countries advance in reorienting their health systems towards primary health care, it becomes crucial to measure and monitor health inequalities over time and across different population groups. This ensures that today’s policy and programmatic actions remain relevant, effective and equitable – no one is left behind. This book adopts a comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach to health inequality monitoring, providing insights on how regular trend assessments can track the magnitude and direction of changes – whether improvements or deteriorations over time for different population segments. Through a broad set of health system outputs, outcomes, impact indicators and country comparisons, it offers a structured methodology to unpack country-specific health inequality contexts using pragmatic and action-oriented disaggregation strategies. The book also presents a compelling vision of health inequality monitoring as a shared responsibility across global, regional, national, subnational and community levels, while offering robust analytical tools to evaluate policy interventions at these multiple layers.

This book is a culmination of the scientific evidence and advances made in the field of health inequality monitoring. It brings together the approaches, frameworks, data systems, summary measures and dimensions of inequality that make-up the ecosystem of health inequality monitoring. It is a collaborative product involving global, regional and national health systems experts, researchers and policy-makers who contribute proven concepts and empirical examples to identifying the plethora of factors that underpin health inequality which in turn can guide a process-tracing analysis of public health policy actions. It is an essential, credible, self-directed resource for public health practitioners in different settings and economies who wish to understand the fundamentals of health inequality monitoring. The book serves as a requisite to the development of public health programmes and service delivery models that ensure equitable access, positive patient experiences and optimal outcomes.

We know the “inverse care law” is still functioning in most areas of the world and those who are most in need are less likely to receive the services they need. Also, where a person lives tends to define his or her access to health services, exposure to disease risk factors and even health outcomes. Characteristics such as sex, education, income and other social and behavioural factors often correlate with health. To see improvements in health at the population level, we need to know these factors better. We need to know how they interact with each other and how they are changing over time. And we need to convey this evidence to policy-makers to advance equity-promoting efforts in society. Bringing together decades of advancements across disciplines, this book provides clear guidance for measuring and understanding the inequalities in health between population groups. The book presents a strong rationale for health inequality monitoring and charts a way forward for better communication with policy-makers, community members and other key audiences.

This is a valuable resource for Member States in the WHO Western Pacific Region – a region noted for its vast diversity but also its striking disparities in health. It comes at a very opportune time. With less than six years to go, the Region on whole is off track to achieve many of the Sustainable Development Goals though is striving towards accelerating progress. The only way to get back on track is by addressing inequities in health. This resource provides a comprehensive framework for identifying and addressing health inequalities within and between countries. By leveraging the data collection and analysis techniques outlined, our Member States can better track progress towards health equity and inform policy decisions to address inequities more effectively. The book emphasizes the importance of disaggregated data to uncover hidden inequalities and the use of benchmarking to compare performance across jurisdictions. Additionally, it highlights the role of community-based monitoring and multisectoral collaboration in achieving health equity. By integrating these practices, Member States can enhance their health information systems, promote transparency and drive targeted interventions to improve health outcomes for all population subgroups. This resource supports the shared responsibility of monitoring health inequalities and advancing towards a just society that upholds health for families, communities and societies.

This publication is a game-changer for global health, offering practical tools to monitor and address inequalities – a key WHO priority. It equips bold leaders with evidence-based guidance to drive impactful change and hold systems accountable. By using this resource, professionals can transform data into action, making marginalized populations visible and ensuring fair access to health benefits. Equity demands both political will and technical expertise. As Brock Chisholm said, “scientific progress brings new efficiency to medicine and social progress demands that these benefits reach the entire population.”

We treasure what we measure. This book provides critical and timely guidance for using health inequality monitoring to close gaps in universal health coverage and to identify targeted interventions across sectors to address exclusion and discrimination that lead to inequitable health outcomes. Health inequality monitoring requires the commitment and engagement of governments, international organizations, civil society and communities. If we are serious about leaving no one behind when we speak about Health for All, then health inequality monitoring is central to delivering on that shared commitment. As Director for Gender, Equity, Diversity and Rights for Health at WHO Headquarters, I am wholeheartedly committed to collective efforts to scale up and improve health inequality monitoring across WHO, the multilateral system and Member States. This resource will be an important tool in those efforts.

Health inequality monitoring: harnessing data to advance health equity is a detailed and comprehensive look at how data on inequality are needed to achieve equity through public health action. This includes action on the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age. Supporting countries to monitor and address social determinants to improve health equity is at the heart of our work at WHO. More broadly, the concepts and techniques described in this new resource are relevant to achieving global health and development goals. This publication fills a critical gap in the current repertoire of tools for using health data to its full effect and is a valuable resource for global health analysts, policy-makers, practitioners, scholars and other enthusiasts.