http://www.paho.org/English/DBI/OP08.htm

The concept of equity has emerged as a primary guiding for the work of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau. The Bureau has been gathering information on and examining issues related to disparities in health in the Americas, especially as they relate to socioeconomic factors. The articles gathered in this publication represent an important step toward a more equitable distribution of health conditions and health related services, insofar as they represent the status of the issues and dilemmas faced by that Bureau in making equity an operational concept for its work in the Region. The authors have attempted to show how equity and the insights it yields into the distribution of health-dependent as this is on differences in education, income, class, ethnicity and race, geographic location, gender, and other distinctions-can underpin the Bureau's work at the operational level and be incorporated into technical cooperation activities. Many of the perspectives expressed in the collection come from conceptual work developed by others scholars and researchers or emerge from the Bureau's ongoing work with collaborating institutions, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, UNDP, and CARICOM, as well as several universities and professional and academic associations in the Region. The collection is organized into three sections: "Conceptual and Contextual Aspects of Health Equity," "Priorities for Incorporating Equity into Technical Cooperation in Health" and "Making Health Equity Work at the Country Level.