The Thai National Health Act B.E. 2550 (2007) was recently approved and entered into force on 19th of March. The ambitious legislation includes several sections on HIA, which cover the rights of Thai people to demand a HIA be conducted and to participate in HIA process, as well requiring the development of guidelines and procedures for HIA to be developed by the newly established National Health Committee.
According to the Act, HIA is designed to be a “social learning process”, which has been developed so that all stakeholders in society can be involved in examining the health impacts of policies, projects or activities that have already affected or may affect groups of people. This social learning process involves identifying and supporting the most appropriate alternative in public decision-making processes with the goal of protecting and promoting the health of all people in Thai society.
For more information on the Act email suphakijn@yahoo.com
This post was written by Suphakij Nuntavorakarn from the Thai Healthy Public Policy Foundation and originally appeared in the International Association for Impact Assessment's HIA Quarterly.
No comments:
Post a Comment