Challenges and Issues around Health Impact Assessment and Health Promotion
Introduction
Worldwide there is growing awareness that policy decisions in all sectors have a vital role in determining population health and the distribution of health within populations. The health sector (in particular) needs to identify effective approaches through which to ensure that policy decisions in all sectors promote health and reduce health inequity.
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) has evolved to support health and other sectors to identify, systematically, the likely health effects of policies, plans, programmes and projects. It then benefits stakeholders by recommending actions to strengthen the positive effects, and mitigate the negative effects of proposed interventions on health and health equity.
There is a growing body of knowledge and experience in the conduct of HIA in many different countries. Governments, the WHO (including the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health), and other global institutions recommend, and in some cases require, the use of HIA.
Session Objectives
This session will address challenges to realising the full potential of HIA. The IUHPE Global Working Group on HIA and Health Promotion is keen to discuss the challenges with colleagues from across the world and to develop a plan of action to enable the IUHPE, in partnership with many other organisations, to enhance the use of HIA and other forms of impact assessment in promoting health and increasing health equity across the world. The International Association for Impact Assessment is working with the IUHPE in this Global Working Group.
Key messages / key questions addressed in the session
- what is the current state of impact assessment and Health Impact Assessment across the world?
- how can Health Impact Assessment influence a policy, plan, programme or project – a case study?
- what is the role of Health Impact Assessment in promoting health and increasing health equity within populations?
- what are the opportunities, challenges and actions to increase the use and effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment in promoting health and increasing health equity?
- what actions can be taken by the IUHPE Global Working Group on HIA and Health Promotion and other organisations to increase the use of impact assessment to improve health and health equity across the world?
The proposed sub-plenary workshop will address the ways in which Health Impact Assessment can contribute to the development and implementation of policies, plans, programmes and projects that contribute, positively, to the equitable distribution of health within populations and between countries.
Chair:
- Prof. Marilyn Wise, Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE), School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia
- Prof. Marilyn Wise, Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE), School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia
- Mr Ben Cave, International Association for Impact Assessment, Ben Cave Associates Ltd, Leeds, UK
Presentation (PPS, 3.08 MB)
- Dr Owen Metcalfe, Associate Director, Institute of Public Health, Dublin, Ireland
Presentation (PPS, 1.49 MB)
- Dr. Elizabeth Harris, Director, Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation (CHETRE), University of New South Wales, Liverpool BC, Australia
Presentation (PPS, 1.08 MB)
- Ms Louise St-Pierre, Head of Projects, National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy, Institut national de sante publique du Quebec, Quebec (QC), Canada
Presentation (PPS, 584 kB)
- Dr Jean Simos, Director, Research Group on Environment and Health (GRES), University of Geneva, Institute for Environmental Sciences. Geneva, Switzerland
Presentation (PPS, 64.44 kB)
- Dr Carlos Santos-Burgoa, Medical Epidemiologist, Health Promotion and Services,Tlalpan, Mexico
