2021 Australian Laureate Fellow

ARC Laureate Fellow to advance the understanding of how to redress global health inequity

Project: Governance for Planetary Health Equity

This Laureate program will use the novel lens of Planetary Health Equity to advance understanding of the impact of climate change on health inequities, and the importance for global health equity of considering planetary as well as human systems. Using international and multi-sectoral comparative analysis, it intends to elucidate how institutions and actors can enable the development of coherent policy and business practices that advance planetary health equity.

� View Professor Sharon Friel’s profile and research interests.

In reflecting on being the first and only person in her family to go to university (until her niece started in 2017), Professor Friel says that winning the Laureate feels “lovely, a little surreal and an important responsibility.”

“I would like to think that my award of the Laureate shows others from a variety of backgrounds what is possible, remembering the importance of structural and social support that sits behind this success,” she says.

The fellowship project will use the lens of planetary health equity, defined as the environmentally sustainable and equitable enjoyment of good health, to advance our understanding of the interactions between climate change and health inequity, and create a new field of governance for planetary health equity.

Commenting on the complex challenges facing the world today, Professor Friel says that COVID-19 has thrown into sharp relief the deep and entrenched social and health inequities that we experience in Australia and across the world.

“These inequities are only going to get worse under climate change unless there are marked improvements in the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.

“If transformative action to mitigate climate change is not taken soon, the risks to human health, health inequities, and indeed human survival will be immense. Most affected will be socially disadvantaged groups who are least able to adapt to the changing climate.”

This cycle of climate change and health inequity is aggravated by the global consumptogenic system, which is characterised by institutions, policies, business practices, social norms and behaviours that encourage and reward excessive production and consumption of fossil fuel-reliant goods and services that are unhealthy and inequitably valued and distributed. The consumptogenic system is a root cause of health inequities and climate change.

“The Laureate aims to identify how the consumptogenic system can be realigned towards planetary health equity goals,” Professor Friel explains.

The Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at RegNet and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences emphasised three main aspects of the Laureate:

Big, bold and disruptive research–the Laureate will provide a road map for planetary health equity. The project will integrate health, social equity and climate change agendas, deepen our understanding of the political economy of the consumptogenic system, and identify how the power of different interests, ideas and institutions hinder or enable the development of coherent policy and business practices for planetary health equity.

Action focused–the Laureate focuses on understanding how systems change can happen. It will examine how to embed Planetary Health Equity in All Policies and identify the Commercial determinants of Planetary Health Equity. Ultimately the Laureate will provide evidence-informed strategies for socially-oriented actors, including government, international organisations and non-government organisations to advance system transformation for planetary health equity.

Nurturing minds for the future–the Laureate award enables a five-year program of work that will equip early career researchers (ECRs) and PhD students with intellectual, practical and strategic skills for their career as well as building deep disciplinary expertise. It will create a cohort of future leaders and innovators in the new field of governance for planetary health equity, and more generally in interdisciplinary systems-based approaches to complex societal problems.

RegNet School Director Professor Kate Henne congratulated Professor Friel on her success.

“This is a wonderful outcome and a welldeserved recognition of the significant work Sharon and her team have done over the years. We are looking forward to the many contributions this project will make to advancing understandings on how to create systems change that will improve planetary health equity.”

The Laureate program will build upon Professor Friel’s and her team’s work that focuses on the social and commercial determinants of health equity. Their work has identified important structural drivers of health inequities: policy incoherence, the privileging of economic over social and health interests, and power asymmetries between socially- and marketoriented actors. The Laureate aims to understand and change these factors to better improve planetary health equity.

Looking back at her career, Professor Friel reflected on the outstanding mentors who guided her to become a global leader in the field of health equity.

“They gave me a platform, and opened doors for me to influential academics and policy makers. In doing this, I have been able to help create a step change in academic and policy approaches to health equity,” she says.

However, creating a paradigm shift often means working at institutional and disciplinary edges and being outside her comfort zone. To operate in such a way, without being disadvantaged in career trajectory, can be challenging and requires support. Professor Friel aims to do what her mentors did for her: to create a nurturing, enabling and ‘opening of doors’ program for junior scholars, particularly female scholars.

“I will create a platform that gives junior scholars the confidence to be disruptive and have a prominent voice,” she emphasised.