How can public policies effectively reduce health inequalities among children? The Gradient Evaluation Framework (GEF) is an action-oriented policy tool that can be applied to assess whether policies will contribute to greater health equity amongst children and their families. The tool was developed as part of the GRADIENT project in order to respond to the urgent need to identify ways to evaluate the health and equity impact of policies.
GEF provides a framework for the evaluation and implementation of policy-actions at each stage of the policy cycle. It includes a set of principles, procedures and mechanisms that can be applied to a wide range of policies, including:
- Public health policies that comprise of a complex mix of actions, including programmes
- Specific health policy actions (e.g. nutrition programmes in schools)
- Non-health policies that have a potential to impact on the social determinants of health inequalities (e.g. education, employment, and agriculture sectors
GEF can be used on any policy, action, programme, intervention or project that either affects, or is intended to affect, health equity in a given population.
GEF represents a valuable instrument for experts with knowledge or interest in public health and equity, such as policy advisors, decision-makers, researchers, evaluators, practitioners and others, working locally, nationally, or at the EU level.
Download the GEF Evaluation Framework (8 Mb) from DropBox or from this website.
To download the presentation of GEF click here.
