In 2015, the Government of Colombia launched the Observatory for Measuring Health Inequalities and Equity Analysis in Colombia (ODES for its acronym in Spanish), as an additional tool to contribute to understanding and reducing inequities, as well as progress in decision-making in health equity.

ODES Colombia manages data, analysis and evidence in order to monitor, measure and explain these observable, unjust and avoidable differences in health among people of different social groups, which are result of forms of disadvantage such as poverty, discrimination and lack of access to services and the distribution of resources and income within the country.

This book describes how a country in Latin American settings may start taking social action in reducing health inequities, improving the Knowledge Translation (KT) from the availability of indicators, building capacity in measuring health inequalities to an appropriate dissemination of evidence, for example through appropriate learning experiences and platforms.

It also demonstrates how Colombia has begun to recognize that inequities are unfair and avoidable, and therefore we must identify, understand and explain the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) if we want successful to reduce and prevent them, as well as assume the importance of high economic cost involved simply do nothing.