Capacity for Health Impact Assessment Debbie Abrahams Director IMPACT+ West Midlands Public Health Observatory, Birmingham, 25 th June 2008

Presentation Overview  Capacity Building  United Kingdom  Europe  International  Making an Impact: Capacity Building for Health Impact Assessment in Liverpool  Enablers  Disablers

Capacity Building “...implies creation of an enabling policy environment, effective institution strengthening and targeted human resources.” WHO website “ Capacity building provides specific input for the HIA system. Key aspects are production and training of practitioners establishment of support units close links to health intelligence” Wismar et al 2007

United Kingdom  National policy drivers, e.g. - ‘Choosing Health’ - ‘Health Inequalities: progress and next steps’ - Planning Guidance (PPS 12)  Established training, e.g. - public and private - international  Support Units  Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO)  Developing evidence base for HIA

Examples Ireland  All-island of Ireland  Government support  Institute of Public Health in Ireland - Guidelines - Training - Evidence England  DH Impact Assessment support  ‘Making an Impact’ Project – Liverpool  Healthy Communities Learning Network – North East  Yorkshire & Humberside PHO

Scotland  Lothian Health Board: - Scottish HIA Network - On-line training resource - Guidelines - Evidence Wales  Welsh Assembly support  Welsh Health Impact Assessment Support Unit  Local Government Association support e.g. mandatory for waste - Guidelines - Training

Europe  20/21 Countries endorse HIA either national, regionally or at locality level  Most HIA activity in England, Wales, Finland and Netherlands – “centres”  Most of the 21 countries have a lead agency identified  Funding variability – “develop” or “do” Health Impact Assessment  Few “centres”, some embedded CB, e.g. Sweden

International activity  Cambodia  Vietnam  Thailand  Lao PDR  Australia  Japan  New Zealand  India  Bhutan  South Korea 1 st South East Asia and Oceania HIA Conference 2007 Some 15 other countries, including  USA – 2004 seminar Princeton; Workshop Washington 2006; some training e.g. San Francisco, Berkeley, CA., petroleum and gas  Canada  China  Brazil – WHO training with Ministry of Health

Making an Impact: Capacity Building in Liverpool  Vision – Health in All Policies  Aims - Develop HIA culture -Integrate HIA into policy planning  Objectives -Build HIA capacity / capability -Support HIAs -Undertake HIAs -Monitor and evaluate

Making an Impact: Capacity Building in Liverpool  Baseline Survey  Declaration of Commitment 2005  HIA Champions  Resources  HIA Officer  Screening Toolkit  Network and webpage  Training - courses, action learning  HIA Strategic Group

Making an Impact: Capacity Building in Liverpool  HIA Screening Toolkit  HIA Network  Embed health into Core Strategy of Local Development Framework (PPS 12)  Healthy Urban Planning  Healthy Cities, including Phase lV HIA  Facilitating Community HIA

Enablers  Political commitment  Endorsement at policy level  High level sign-up by partner organisations  History of Health Impact Assessment - academic / methodology - training - practice and implementation  Central Policy drivers - Health Inequalities - European Directives  Continuing support / stewardship  Resources

 Challenge of institutionalisation  Re-structuring of organisations  Commitment at operational level, e.g. time  Changes in priorities / personnel  Commitment of resources  Implementation of recommendations  Understanding of HIA language Flexibility of the methodology Number of other “assessments” Disablers