‘Health Equity and Sustainable Development’

The Hong Kong Chapter of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN Hong Kong) and the Jockey Club Institute of Ageing at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) jointly organised the first Distinguished Lecture on Sustainable Development on 30 November (Friday) at CUHK. Prof. Sir Michael Marmot, Director of the Institute of Health Equity at University College London, delivered a lecture titled ‘Health Equity and Sustainable Development’. The lecture drew an audience of over 150 scholars, students, alumni, and members of the public.

In his welcome address, Prof. Rocky S. Tuan, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, said, ‘As Hong Kong enjoys the longest life expectancy in the world, it has become all the more important for us to address the social determinants of health inequities. Tackling the health gap requires action across the whole of society. I am sure with his extensive research in Europe and America, Prof. Marmot is going to lead us to a very productive discussion on how health equity in Hong Kong can be improved.’

Prof. Sir Michael Marmot, an internationally renowned authority in public health, illustrated in the lecture systematic inequalities in mental and physical health between groups arising from inequalities in the social, economic, and environmental conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age; and in the structural drivers of those conditions broadly described as the ‘Social Determinants of Health’. In response to a call for a more just and sustainable society, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals provide an instrumental framework for action.

During the question-and-answer session, moderated by Prof. Jean Woo, Director of the CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, participants raised questions about the way forward for Hong Kong to achieve health equity and had a fruitful discussion with the speakers.

About Prof. Sir Michael Marmot
Prof. Sir Michael Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology at University College London.   He is the author of The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world (2015) and Status Syndrome: how your place on the social gradient directly affects your health (2004). Prof. Marmot held the Harvard Lown Professorship from 2014 to 2017 and was the recipient of the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health 2015. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from 18 universities and has led research groups on health inequalities for over 40 years. He chairs the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, set up in 2015 by the World Health Organization’s Pan-American Health Organization.