The effectiveness of HIAs conducted in Australia and New Zealand

It occurred to me that I haven't posted a link to the final report on the Australian Research Council-funded study on the effectiveness of HIAs conducted in Australia and New Zealand between 2005 and 2009. The report has lots of information in it. Download it here.

Launch: Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment in New Zealand and Australia Report

The Centre for Health Equity Training, Research, and Evaluation invites you to attend the launch of The Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment in New Zealand and Australia: 2005-2009 Report

Friday, 13 December, 2013

2 – 4 pm

Lavender Bay rooms 1&2,

North Sydney Harbourview Hotel

17 Blue Street, North Sydney

Flyer

Webinar facilities will be available for our interstate and international attendees. RSVP to Heike Schutze: h.schutze@unsw.edu.au

Health Impact Assessments in Australia and New Zealand 2005-2009

Overview of HIAs in Australia and New Zealand during the study period

I'm excited that several colleagues and I have published a paper on HIAs conducted in Australia and New Zealand between 2005 and 2009:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12102/full

This paper is essentially a census of practice. It's the first paper from an Australian Research Council-funded study of the impact and effectiveness of HIAs conducted in Australia and New Zealand. The best thing is it's an open access publication, so anyone can access the entire article for free.

The flow chart below gives an overview of how HIAs were selected for inclusion in the study. We don't think we included every HIA done - a number were not possible to find or were never publicly released - but the study represents one of the more systematic and comprehensive attempts to describe HIA practice internationally.

A total of 115 potentially eligible HIAs were identified; 55 met the study's inclusion criteria

Please let us know what you think in the comments.

Does health impact assessment protect health? Is that the right question?

There's a thought-provoking piece at ABC Environment on Does environmental impact assessment protect the environment? The piece quotes several well-known Australian EIA academics about how well EIA in Australia is performing in terms of environmental protection.

There's no consensus in the piece about whether EIA is successfully protecting the environment or not, though some different ways of thinking about it are discussed. I think that's because the article dances around the core issue: what is the purpose of EIA? This may seem axiomatic and uncontested but I wonder if it's an under-examined difference between the goals and purpose of impact assessments.

Public Event in Sydney: Effectiveness of HIA in Australia & New Zealand

The findings of a two year Australian Research Council-funded study into the effectiveness of HIA will be discussed at a one day validation meeting at the University of New South Wales on 15th June from 9am-4.30pm.

Download flyer

Cost

$20.00 (at the door includes lunch), Concession holders and NGOs free

RSVP: Mary Knopp 02 96120779 mary.knopp@sswahs.nsw.gov.au (numbers are limited)

Opening Address

Andrew L. Dannenberg, MD, MPH, is an Affiliate Professor of environmental health and of urban design and planning at the University of Washington in Seattle.  He also serves as a consultant to and was formerly Team Lead of the Healthy Community Design Initiative in the National Center for Environmental Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.  For the past decade, his research and teaching has examined the health aspects of community design including land use, transportation, urban planning, and other issues related to the built environment.  He has a particular focus on the use of a health impact assessment as a tool to inform community planners about the health consequences of their decisions.  Dr. Dannenberg is co-author with Howard Frumkin and Richard Jackson of Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Wellness, and Sustainability published by Island Press in 2011.

Program

• Welcome. Professor Mark Harris
• Opening: Professor Fan Baum – what did WHO CSDOH say about HIA as a tool for addressing health inequity
• HIA in the USA: What can we learn from each other ? Dr Andy Dannenberg
• HIA in NZ: Prof Louise Signal & Prof Richard Morgan
• HIA in Australia Prof Jeff Spickett & Patrick Harris
• Research Findings
• Q& A on research findings
• Case Studies:
• Far North Queensland
• SW Sydney
• Hawkes Bay, NZ
• Panel: Implications for policy and practice