Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health and environment
Background
There are many opportunities where interventions can be leveraged to create healthier environments. This compendium provides an overview of guidance by environmental area, and points to more detailed WHO and other UN guidance for the next implementation steps. It serves to outline actions to create healthier environments and to guide and support the user in view of engaging in strategic discussions with other sectors and partners where necessary, to effect these changes.
While the main part of each section covers guidance, each section also provides information on assessment of the current situation (local data, exposure modelling, databases) and pollution sources; targets to achieve (guideline values) and selected tools are also provided where relevant.
Not all the guidance in this compendium will apply and work equally well in every context. Therefore the local circumstances and priorities should be considered before implementing any interventions, strategies or actions. Local circumstances may include: i) distribution of exposures to the risk factor; ii) effectiveness of source or exposure reduction by the strategy or solution; iii) health impact of the measure; and iv) cost–effectiveness of the measure.
The actions compiled in the Compendium contribute to achieving the SDGs
17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form an overarching framework for sustainable development. While several of the goals are linked to the environment, and goal 3 is specifically focused on health, all the SDGs are directly or indirectly connected with health and environment. Similarly, this Compendium includes guidance on actions on health and environment that will facilitate progress across all the SDG goals.
Target audience
This compendium aims to provide practitioners with a rapid overview of WHO and other UN-recommended actions and tools to address various health risks. Practitioners targeted in particular include key decision-makers at national, regional and municipal levels, government officials, higher-level policy-makers, key actors such as municipal staff, staff in relevant ministries (including those working with industry), community health workers, WHO and UN partner agencies’, funds’ and programmes’ country representatives and country staff, and nongovernmental organizations planning or performing country work.
How to use this Compendium?
This compendium was developed by systematically compiling existing published guidance on health and the environment from WHO and other UN organizations. Collated guidance was grouped under the categories “policies and actions” and “awareness raising and capacity building”. Guidance was further attributed classifiers in order to provide useful information on the type of strategy or intervention to the implementer and the planner, as well as to serve as a search tool.
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