Exploring profits vs health

The Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity is hosting an event in August that will see experts from around Australia dissect the commercial determinants of health and their significant influences on our society’s health and wellbeing.

The past five years have seen the commercial determinants of health increasingly recognised for their powerful influence on population health. Patterns of trade, practices of transnational corporations and tensions between health and business goals all form part of these determinants and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought discussions of the trade-offs between economic and health goals to the fore.

Presented by Professor Fran Baum, this webinar will feature four researchers of the commercial determinants of health who will present individually, followed by a panel discussion.

Professor Baum will be joined by:

Dr Julia Anaf: “Corporate strategies to shape public perceptions on health and equity issues”

Dr Anaf is a qualitative researcher in the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University. Her key role is to undertake research on the ways transnational corporations across different industry sectors act as commercial determinants of health. She has conducted health impact assessments of the operations of a global fast food corporation within Australia and a global extractives corporation within both Australia and Southern Africa, and is researching the health impacts of an Australian alcohol company owned by a major transnational corporation.

Dr Jennifer Lacy-Nichols: The good, the bad and the grey areas: how do we weigh up the harmful and healthful practices of the Commercial Determinants of Health”

Dr Lacy-Nichols is from the School of Agriculture and Food at the University of Melbourne. She focuses on the power and influence of food corporations including her 2019 PhD research into the soft drink industry’s political strategy to position itself as “part of the solution” to obesity. She is currently working on the Hallmark Future Food Initiative to analyse the health, commercial and political drivers of “alternative protein” production and consumption (lab meat, plant burgers). She recently attended the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) 2020 Executive Board meeting as a representative of the People’s Health Movement, advocating for improving WHO engagement with civil society and addressing conflicts of interest arising from the commercial sector’s influence in the WHO.

Dr Belinda Townsend: “Unpacking trade and investment agreements as commercial drivers for noncommunicable diseases”

Dr Townsend is Deputy Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at the Australian National University. Her work focuses on the political economy of health and health governance. She recently examined agenda-setting in areas outside the “health policy” domain, such as in trade and investment, employment, and social and welfare policy.

Facilitator – Professor Fran Baum AO

Professor Baum is a Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Foundation Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University. She is Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Social, Political and Commercial Determinants of Health Equity. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and of the Australian Health Promotion Association. She is a past National President of the Public Health Association of Australia and is Chair of the Global Steering Council of the People’s Health Movement – a global network of health activists. She served as a Commissioner on the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health from 2005-08.

Panel Member – Professor Sharon Friel

Professor of Health Equity and Director of the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University, Professor Friel is also Director of the Menzies Centre for Governance, Policy and Health Equity, ANU. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and co-Director of the NHMRC Centre for Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity.

Event details: Unpacking the Commercial Determinants of Health

Where: Presented via Zoom

When: Tuesday 11 August, 4:00pm to 5:30pm (Adelaide, South Australia time)

Register: Email enquiries.southgateinstitute@flinders.edu.au to obtain Zoom ID and passcode

 

Posted in
College of Medicine and Public Health