ArabicChineseEnglishFrenchRussianSpanish
WHO home
All WHO This site only
 

Health Impact Assessment (HIA)

  Evidence | Examples | Toolkits | Other resources
  WHO > Programmes and projects > Health Impact Assessment (HIA) > HIA and policy making

HIA and policy making

Power plant

In this section we investigate how HIA contributes to policy making.

HIA can be a valuable tool for helping to develop policy and assisting decision-makers. The usefulness and need of HIA within policy and decision making is clear, HIA:

  • is used in projects, programmes and policies
  • assists policy development
  • brings policies and people together
  • involves the public
  • provides information for decision makers
  • addresses many policy making requirements
  • recognises that other factors influence policy apart from HIA.
  • is a proactive process that improves positive outcomes and decreases negative outcomes
  • can provide what policy makers need

Suggestions for how an HIA practitioner might interact with the policy process and policy makers, a description of the different stages in policy making, plus some key steps for HIA practitioners, are also provided.

Some of the HIA guidance documents that are available on this website also deal with guidance on how to carry out policy level HIA.

How to make HIA work with policy making and decision making

The role of HIA in decision making

Barriers cited to using HIA in Government policy making


HIA CONFERENCE IN GENEVA - 7 APRIL 2010

HIA in Cities + HIA in Extractive Industries
Call for abstracts - poster session deadline 5 March 2010 [pdf 20kb]


E-LEARNING COURSES

Developed by Université Laval, WHO and Health Canada
Introduction to HIA
HIA of mining projects


USEFUL LINKS

What is a WHO collaborating centre?
FAQs
Glossary


CONTACT US

We welcome feedback on this web site, please e-mail: hia[at]who.int