Equity, Equality and Justice in Social Science Research in Africa

This chapter explores equity as a moral concern within the framework of the public good and an ethical challenge of social justice within the African context. Health equity refers to the absence of unjust and preventable differences in the health status of persons that are socially and institutionally maintained through unequal distribution of resources and the mechanisms or processes by which this occurs. Health inequity does not occur uniformly across populations but may differ between ethnic, socio-economic, cultural and gender groups within a specific country. Health inequity therefore broadly has two dimensions, inequality on the one hand, which describes how health is distributed and the processes by which it is achieved, and inequity as a pointer to social injustice on the other hand. In Africa, health inequity is all pervasive as Africa suffers from fragmentation and underinvestment in health, with a high burden of disease and a lack of resources to manage it. Social science is important in identifying and addressing the challenges caused by inequity.