Canadian Senate Mulls HIA Requirement

By Marla Orenstein, Habitat Health Impact Consulting

The Canadian Senate Subcommittee on Population Health has released an interim report on its study of the determinants of health. The purpose of the interim report is to outline the major issues facing the development of population health policy in Canada; to present policy options to improve overall health status and reduce health disparities; and to launch a public debate on the role of the federal government in population health policy.

One of the policy options considered in the report is establishing a federal requirement for the application of HIA to all new public policy proposals. This requirement - if implemented - would bring Canada in line with Sweden and New Zealand, where HIA has become an integral government process.

The report forms the basis for public hearings and consultations that will be held across Canada. Public input is being sought through June 30, 2008. Specific questions relevant to HIA that the subcommittee has raised include: Should the federal government establish a mechanism to allow for or require the application of HIA to all new public policy proposals? Would new legislation be required to do so? Is it realistic to envision HIA as a routine component of all new federal policies and programs? If HIA were to be introduced as a component of federal population health policy, what should be the role and responsibilities of Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and central agencies such as Finance Canada and the Treasury Board?

Do you have strong opinions about these issues? Even if you are not in Canada, I urge you to respond directly to the committee at SOC-AFF-SOC@sen.parl.gc.ca

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Promoting Healthy Public Policy: New Zealand Health Impact Assessment Practitioners' Workshop

Promoting Healthy Public Policy
Health Impact Assessment Practitioners' Workshop
9 June 2008, Christchurch Convention Centre, 9.30am - 4.30pm

This event is being organised by the Health Impact Assessment Support Unit in collaboration with Christchurch Community Public Health to further develop the Unit's Learning by Doing approach: creating capacity and building an evidence base on HIA in New Zealand.

The outcomes for the event are to develop a learning network for HIA, share current work from around the country and increase collaborative working on HIA.

It should be attended by HIA practitioners, local, regional and central government people involved in policy making and those who want to improve their knowledge and understanding of HIA.

Deadline for registration is Friday 16 May 2008. More information from http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/hiasupportunit-newsandevents

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World Health Day: The Health Impacts of Climate Change

Hurricanes destroy banana plantations in Honduras,
Severe droughts in Mali;
Flooding in Uganda

The theme of this year's World Health Day is protecting health from climate change. As you're all aware climate change represents a major challenge to public health in general and health impact assessment in particular, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation.

Coinciding with the 2008 World Health Day, China has announced that it is starting a program looking at the health impacts of climate change in conjunction with the World Health Organization and funded by the Spanish government.


World Health Day 2008 PSA


WHO Director-General Margaret Chan's World Health Day Message


Image Credits: Details at www.who.int/world-health-day/media/photo_gallery/en/index.html

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Sydney: The Other City

For those in Sydney

Sydney: The Other City
Building a Sustainable Western Sydney by 2030

Tuesday, 29th and Wednesday 30th April, 2008
Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, 597 High Street, Penrith

Book time in your diaries now for this major two-day conference which will put the spotlight on Sydney's "Other City", Western Sydney.

Managing Western Sydney's growth is the major challenge to all levels of government as well as the community and private sectors if we are to build a region that is economically, socially, culturally and environmentally sustainable. A wide range of speakers including the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP, Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Prof. Peter Newman, Curtin University, Prof. Phil O'Neill, University of Western Sydney and Prof. Bill Randolph, University of NSW will address the regional sustainability challenge in series of presentations, panels and workshops. Other confirmed speakers include the Hon. Barbara Perry, NSW Minister for Western Sydney and the Hon. Paul Lynch MP, NSW Minister for Local Government.

I hope you can join our speakers as well as representaives of all three levels of Government and other key organisations to help in planning funding and building a sustainable future for Western Sydney.

Further information and registration details will be distributed shortly. In the meantime, please contact WSROC on 02 9671 4333 or esme@wsroc.com.au if you have any questions.

Clr Tony Hay
President
Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils Ltd
PO Box 63
Blacktown NSW 2148
Ph: +61 2 9671 4333
Fax: +61 2 9621 7741
Web: www.wsroc.com.au

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World Water Day

Today is World Water Day, a United Nations initiative that grew out of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. Water looms as a major global issue in coming years, as this digram of population and water availability shows:

Source: Water for Life, UN Water: New York, 2005.
As you can see there are major disparities in the distribution of population and water availability around the globe. This is most glaringly the case in Asia, which has 60% of the world's population but only has 36% of global water resources.

Already a number of HIAs that have been conducted in NSW have highlighted the importance of water and water supply in protecting and promoting population health. Water is already a critical resource and it will only become more so in the future. It is incumbent on us as HIA practitioners to become familiar with the health impacts of changes to water availability.

Interesting Links

• Human Development Report 2006 - Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis
  
• Water and Public Health - Special Issue of the Public Health Bulletin of South Australia [PDF]
  
• Health Impact Assessment - WHO Water Sanitation and Health (WSH)
  
• Urban Water - Tools and Resources

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IAIA Health Quarterly March 2008

From Ben Cave, Co-Chair of the International Association for Impact Assessment Health Section

The latest issue of the IAIA HIA Quarterly is available for download from the IAIA website [PDF 380 Kb].

This issue includes the following articles:

• Ben Cave reports on a meeting between the World Health Organization, the
• International Finance Corporation and the World Bank;
• Maria João Heitor writes about a European meeting in Portugal looking at
• Health, and Health Systems, Impact Assessment;
• Mathias Wismar and Kelly Ernst write about a new publication on the
• effectiveness of HIA;
• Ben Harris-Roxas reports on the South East Asia and Oceania HIA Conference;
• Teresa Lavin and the HIA team at the Institute of Public Health in Ireland
• team describe the 8th International HIA conference held in Dublin;
• Dianne Katscherian describes the forthcoming session on climate change and
• health at IAIA08; and
• there is a round up of new publications and websites and forthcoming events.

We will soon issue a call for contributions to the next Quarterly via HIA listservs.

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New South Wales HIA eNews Issue 19: HIA2007 Conference Special Issue

The latest copy of the New South Wales Health Impact Assessment Project eNews is available for download [PDF 960Kb].

In this issue:

• HIA2007 South East Asia and Oceania HIA Conference
• Health Impact Assessment: A Practical Guide
• Thailand: Recent Experiences
• Participate in the HIA2008 Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand
• NSW Developmental HIA Sites : Coffs Harbour and Oran Park/Turner Road HIAs
• HIA Training 27-29 February 2008
• NZ HIA Support Unit : Building capacity for HIA in New Zealand
• To HIA or Not to HIA?
• Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment A Toolkit from the UK
• What’s New? HIA Publications and Events

Past issues of the eNews can be downloaded from www.hiaconnect.edu.au/hia_e-news.htm

The New South Wales HIA eNews is produced by the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity at the University of New South Wales, Australia as part of the NSW HIA Project funded by NSW Health.

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Health Impact Assessment: A practical guide

The UNSW Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation and NSW Health have published a guide to undertaking health impact assessments. Health Impact Assessment: A practical guide is informed by the experiences of more than twenty health impacts assessments that have been undertaken or supported through the New South Wales Health Impact Assessment Project over the past four years. The guide aims to provide people a practical understanding of HIA, its process, concepts and theories.

A PDF version can be downloaded from http://www.hiaconnect.edu.au/files/Health_Impact_Assessment_A_Practical_Guide.pdf

For a print copy of the guide and/or more information about HIA please phone +61 2 9612 0762 or email s.m.green@unsw.edu.au.

An online version of the guide, with additional materials, links to further resources, and online exercises, is being developed and will be released in 2008 on HIA Connect.

Part One: Overview of Key Concepts
What is HIA?
Why undertake HIA?
What do we mean by ‘health’?
How is health created?
What are health impacts?
HIA is prospective
Broad participation
Equity

Part Two: The Steps in HIA
1. Screening
2. Scoping
3. Identification
4. Assessment
5. Decision-making and recommendations
6. Evaluation and follow-up

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