University of Glasgow - Explore - Glasgow Changing Futures

Healthy & Equitable Futures

Imagine a future where everyone has the same chance to live a long and healthy life. A future free from discrimination, oppression and exploitation.

Progress on healthy life expectancy - the number of years we can expect to live in good health - has stalled in many high-income countries, with some, such as the UK and USA, even seeing declines.

In many low-and-middle-income countries, life expectancy is still rising, but the number of years in good health is not keeping pace. The gaps between societal groups and geographic areas are stark. For example, here in Glasgow, a woman in a wealthy area can expect to live 70 years in good health, in a poor area it is less than 50.

Global developments, such as weakening democratic systems, increasing concentration of wealth, rising tensions, widespread misinformation; unequal benefits from technological advances; and climate change, threaten to worsen inequalities in health and wellbeing.

Securing a healthy, equitable and sustainable future requires collective effort from us all.

Together, we can change the world.

mural of mother & child

Our commitment to a healthy and equitable future

We will actively advocate for healthy and equitable futures for those least likely to be heard – including generations yet unborn.

We will use our expertise to design, test, refine, and evaluate solutions that engage with the complexity of unequal societies.

We will drive rapid advances in future-directed, transdisciplinary research, using our strengths in culturally aware research with tools like data science, artificial intelligence, systems mapping, design thinking, and partnership working with policy, practice and community.

We will focus on finding interventions that tackle multiple issues at once, for example environmentally sustainable housing for those most in need.

We will prioritise health equity knowledge and skills in our education programmes, from undergraduate courses to masterclasses for civic leaders.

We will hold a mirror to ourselves, to determine whether our organisational practices promote healthy, equitable and sustainable futures.