Transforming Public Health: IPPH Strategic Plan, 2022-2026
Moving Upstream
Transforming Public Health: IPPH Strategic Plan, 2022-2026
Moving Upstream
Overarching goal
To catalyse and support transformative interdisciplinary research on the structural determinants of health to meaningfully address the root causes and systems that create health inequities in Canada and globally.
Health inequities exist, persist, and in many cases, are growing in Canada. Evidence indicates that significant health inequities exist between the general Canadian population and Indigenous Peoples, sexual and racial minorities, immigrants, and people living with disabilities, as well as people of lower socioeconomic status. These health inequities include but are not limited to: mental and physical well-being, a host of specific diseases and a multitude of risk factorsFootnote 1. These and others call for attention to the social and structural determinants that shape them.
Social (proximal) determinants of health (SDH) are the social conditions under which people are born, grow, live, love, work, and age, and include factors such as education, employment, social support networks, and gender. Structural (distal) determinants of health (StDOH)Footnote 2 are more broadly defined as the larger societal, economic, ecological, and political contexts which shape the (proximal) social determinants and, in turn, population health and well-being. Fulsome research has been conducted on the social determinants of health, but less attention has been paid to the root structural causes and systems that undergird them. An environmental scan similarly noted that research and practice within public health in Canada often overlooked the “broader health determinants” in CanadaFootnote 3. It identified the need for increased evidence on these structural determinants to inform further action on health (in)equities, including from CIHR and IPPH.
With increased attention to racial and health inequity in Canada over the last decade, in part due to the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action report (2015)Footnote 4, the Black Lives Matter movement and the inequitable impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in population groups across Canada, health researchers, practitioners, communities and funders have recognized the need to examine the root causes and structural drivers of these inequities, along with solutions. Moving Upstream aims to support this growing demand for research into the structural drivers of health inequities (legislation; public and social policies; governance structures; structural racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia; colonialism; ecological and commercial determinants; etc.).
With this priority area IPPH will support: 1) interdisciplinary research on the structural or “system-level” drivers that create, maintain or exacerbate population health (in)equities across sub-groups, regions, contexts and settings; and 2) knowledge mobilization efforts to address them. The desired outcome is to contribute to the evidence base in Canada on the structural drivers that improve, sustain, or deteriorate population health and health equity to ultimately inform equitable policies and practices that reduce social inequities in health across populations.
| Moving Upstream | Objective | Strategies | Embedding equity | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research excellence | Catalyze transformative, interdisciplinary research to increase the evidence base on the StDOH that drive health (in)equities in Canada and globally. | Foster and engage researchers across a wide range of disciplines and sectors to address the complexity of StDOH and their relationship to health (in)equities. | Integrate and engage diverse perspectives (knowledge users, community organizations, interdisciplinary researchers, persons with lived experience, etc.) as appropriate at all stages of the research process (research question, approach, priority-setting, co-design, knowledge mobilization). |
An expanded pool of high-quality research and evidence-informed solutions to influence StDOH. Researchers across related fields are increasingly aligned on the discourse and definitions of StDOH. |
| Capacity-building | Grow and support the community of actors (researchers, practitioners, policymakers, public and not-for-profit sectors) engaged in addressing StDOH. |
Support training and convening opportunities across sectors to share and advance best practices, theories, methods, frameworks, and research impacts on StDOH. Engage the researcher community on questions of equity, power, privilege, in research, policy, and practice arenas that perpetuate social inequities in health and exclude equity-denied populations. |
Champion greater inclusion of equity-denied populations and under-represented populations in training and capacity-building initiatives. | A strong and growing cadre of diverse interdisciplinary, intersectoral researchers, practitioners and knowledge users coalescing to advance the evidence base for policy and practice to address StDOH. |
| Knowledge mobilization (KM) | Catalyse the implementation and development of evidence and innovations to address StDOH in policy and practice. |
Convene partners and researchers in knowledge mobilization (KM) activitiesFootnote 5. Leverage findings and impacts stemming from research and KM activities for use in policy and practice. |
Mobilize evidence to address gaps in policy and practice related to equity-denied and rights-holding groups. Amplify the voices of equity-denied and rights-holding groups and allies in work to address the StDOH. |
Increasing integration and emphasis of health equity research in the shaping and formulation of policies and practices. |
Initiative info
Funding opportunities
For a list of current funding opportunities, visit the IPPH Funding web page.
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