Healthier societies for healthy populations

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic makes the importance of health and wellbeing clear. The pandemic's implications for societies are far reaching. Yet the response to this pandemic and the creation and promotion of health and wellbeing require action beyond the health sector—and beyond the usual ways of working in global health. Governments are not adequately tackling inequality, ongoing economic crises, or continuing environmental damage, which undermines the health of current and future generations. For example, tobacco and alcohol use, unhealthy diets, air pollution, and insufficient physical exercise contribute to most non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which account for 72% of all global deaths.