7.O. Skills building seminar: Initiating change: Mainstreaming equity and diversity in public health

Abstract Background Consideration of the increasing population cultural and ethnic diversity and the widening of social gaps is essential for narrowing health inequities. While tailored and targeted measures for populations at risk of social disadvantage are needed, mainstreaming and integration of diversity and inclusion perspectives in all public health measures are required. To our knowledge, the EU Joint Action for Cardiovascular diseases and diabetes (JACARDI) is the first large-scale program to apply a systematic and harmonized approach for integrating equity and diversity perspectives. Objectives The main objective of the workshop is skills building in integration of equity and diversity perspectives in practice through: 1) Introducing the key requirements for achieving EU-wide programme change, drawing from several decades of experience in projects conducted in over 30 countries, including those partnered with the World Health Organization, governments and industry. 2) Outlining a practical tool in the format of an equity and diversity matrix designed for integrating equity and diversity perspectives developed within the JACARDI project to support implementation of 142 sub-projects in 21 partner countries. 3) A practical participatory group work based on the JACARDI equity and diversity maturity matrix, followed by a moderated discussion. The workshop acts as a valuable platform for sharing and building collaborative knowledge across European countries and empowering participants as initiators for sustainable, more equitable, and diversity inclusive public health actions. It provides practical and concrete skills on equity and diversity that participants can apply in their work and disseminate within their organizations. The presentations will build knowledge, while group work and the moderated discussion will build skills among participants on the workshop topic. Format of the workshop Two presentations followed by participatory group work and a moderated discussion among workshop participants and presenters. Key messages • Population diversity should be systematically mainstreamed in public health to effectively and sustainably narrow persisting health inequities. • An equity and diversity maturity matrix can be used as a practical tool for systematic integration and monitoring of diversity perspectives in practice.