OVERVIEW

This brief examines how health equity can be achieved through a community power-building approach to structural change.

Community power building is about building the ability of communities most impacted by structural oppression to set the agenda toward changing systems to create and sustain healthy communities—and the ability to achieve that agenda.

Research themes

1. Why is structural reform necessary in achieving health equity? 

2. Why is community power building central to tackling structural reform?

3. What structures and systems in decision-making arenas—and the interplay between them—are directly related to the health and well-being of a community?

Key Findings

1. There is a tendency to focus on narrow investments in immediate policy victories or short-term initiatives, rather than on long-term power. At the end of the campaign, groups retreat back to their issue or constituency siloes and the momentum and opportunities are lost to focus on the implementation of the hard-fought policy or to pivot to new issues.  

2. A related problem is an emphasis on government—rather than governance. Traditional foundation-funded strategies are usually about winning government priorities and policies. We are challenging the field to think beyond policy wins and to consider changes in the broader institutional and community contexts that facilitate conditions for an equitable society.

3. Lastly, there is a lack of data-driven, systematic, and action-oriented tools that provide a comprehensive and shared understanding of the full terrain on which social change efforts are fought and victories secured and protected—and, relatedly, what capacities are needed.