Briefing Paper

Southern Regionalisms, Global Agendas: Innovating Inclusive Access to Health, Medicines and Social Protection in a Context of Social Inequity

This Policy Brief highlights key findings from an international social policy research project examining the scope for enhancing the contributions of Southern multilateral regional organisations to inclusive
social development in low-income contexts. The principal focus of research was the regional health policies of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Union of South
American Nations (UNASUR). This is because SADC and UNASUR have clear mandates in relation to health (and other social policies), and include many of the world’s most impoverished populations, for whom unfavourable access to basic health care and medicines is both a persistent obstacle and a
key social determinant of morbidity and mortality