15 September 2012

Health Impact Project Grant Funding: Deadline Extension!


HIP Email Header
From Aaron Wernham,

We hope everyone’s back from Labor Day refreshed.  The first big news is that we are extending the deadline for the open call for proposals.

HIA Program Grants: Brief proposal due Friday, September 28

Demonstration Projects: Full proposal due Friday, October 12

We hope the extra two weeks will allow applicants that have been traveling over the summer an opportunity to submit high quality HIA proposals. We look forward to reading them.

If you’re planning to apply, but haven’t yet, we strongly encourage you to start your application. Creating an account in the online system will give you access to details, instructions, and other information that you will need. 

Please also check out all the resources on our funding opportunities page, including frequently asked questions, and recordings of the webinars.

[Sal's Editor's Note: If you are in the US and you are thinking of doing a HIA then you really must apply. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.Someone has to get that money; it might as well be you.]

14 September 2012

Guide for Stakeholder Participation in HIA

From Tim Choi:

http://www.hiasociety.org/documents/guide-for-stakeholder-participation.pdf

"This guide is a collective product of the Stakeholder Participation Working Group, which emerged from the March 2010 HIA in the Americas Workshop. The Guide primarily targets HIA practitioners who are working to improve stakeholder participation and leadership in the practice of HIA. 

It may also appeal to community groups and stakeholders who want to more effectively participate in, lead, or influence an HIA. 

The guide distills stakeholder participation techniques, case studies, and guiding principles from various fields of expertise, including HIA, environmental and social impact assessment, land use and transportation planning, community-based participatory research, and public health. 
This is a living document that will be updated as new information becomes available. 

The Guide is available online at the Society of Practitioners of HIA (SOPHIA) website: 
http://www.hiasociety.org/rguidance.html 

Any questions, suggestions or comments can be directed to: 
Kim Gilhuly, Human Impact Partners, kim@humanimpact.org, (510) 684-1275." 

10 September 2012

Bulletin politiques publiques et santé août 2012

L'Institut national de santé publique du Québec 

L'équipe du Bulletin souhaite une bonne rentrée à tous ses lecteurs et une bonne conférence internationale sur l'EIS 2012 à tous les participants réunis aujourd'hui à Québec!


http://www.eis2012.ca


Suivez la conférence en direct sur Twitter: #eis2012

Événements

CAN - Webinaire: L’action intersectorielle et les déterminants sociaux de la santé : quelles sont les données probantes?
Health Evidence, en partenariat avec le Centre de collaboration nationale des déterminants de la santé, présentera un webinaire de 90 minutes le 19 septembre 2012 à 13 h HNE. Il abordera les grands thèmes et les principales conséquences pour la pratique en rapport avec la question des déterminants sociaux de la santé.

EUR - Public Health Summer School on Health Impact Assessment
Ce cours de cinq jours en évaluation d’impact sur la santé (EIS) organisé par le Public Health Team au Medical University à Graz, aura lieu du 24 au 28 septembre 2012. Le cours présente l’EIS selon un modèle socio-environnemental de la santé, et met l'accent sur les données qualitatives ainsi que quantitatives. L’approche au cours est très participative et s'appuie sur des études de cas.

INT - Health Impact Assessment (Hia) Short Course
Ce cours intensif d’évaluation d’impact sur la santé (EIS) est offert sur deux fins de semaine (15-16 septembre 2012 et 22-23 septembre 2012) par l'Université Deakin en Australie. Il permettra aux praticiens de comprendre comment mener, commander, examiner et coordonner des EIS dans une gamme de milieux de travail réalistes.

Actualités

CAN - Canada Values Health: Health impact assessment as a policy tool
Ce billet paru sur le blogue du Conseil canadien de la santé soutient que la santé de la population doit être considérée comme la responsabilité des gouvernements et de la société dans son ensemble, et non seulement celle des ministères de la santé. Elle préconise un travail collaboratif entre les ministères pour trouver des solutions.

US - Establishing the Practice of Health Impact Assessment in the United States
Cette chronique du Dr Arthur Wendel, publié par les Centers for Disease Control (CDC) américains, se penche sur la façon dont les professionnels de la santé environnementale mènent l'utilisation des évaluations d'impact sur la santé (EIS) aux États-Unis. Il décrit l'ÉIS comme «un examen physique préopératoire pour les communautés ».

US - Articles about Health Impact Assessment by US authors, 2001-2012
Cette liste documente la croissance rapide des publications portant sur l’évaluation d’impact sur la santé aux États-Unis depuis 2001.

Publications

CAN - Sommes-nous prêts à nous attaquer aux politiques? Évaluer et améliorer le niveau de préparation aux initiatives en matière de politiques
Ce numéro de Healthy Communities’ In Depth examine les aptitudes nécessaires pour l'élaboration de politiques et les stratégies visant à accroître les aptitudes des groupes communautaires locaux.

CAN - Évaluation de l’incidence et de l’efficacité de l’action intersectorielle exercée sur les déterminants sociaux de la santé et l’équité en santé : une revue systématique accélérée
Cette revue systématique accélérée du Centre de collaboration nationale des déterminants de la santé (CCNDS) s’inscrit dans le travail d’exploration continu qu’effectue le personnel du CCNDS relativement à «l’efficacité de l’action» exercée sur les déterminants sociaux de la santé pour améliorer l’équité en santé. Cette revue porte précisément sur l’efficacité de l’action intersectorielle en tant que pratique de santépublique utilisée pour accroître l’équité en santé.


EUR - Public health briefings for local government
Le National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) au Royaume-Uni a mis au point des synthèses en santé publique sur un éventail de sujets. Elles sont destinées aux autorités locales et leurs organisations partenaires dans les secteurs de la santé et le secteur volontaire, en particulier ceux qui sont impliqués avec les conseils de santé et de bien-être. Des publications récentes portent sur le tabac, la santé et l'activité physique.

US - Tools for Implementing an Evidence-Based Approach in Public Health Practice
Ce rapport, publié par les Centers for Disease Control and Prevention américain, se penche sur des outils facilement accessibles et efficaces pour mettre en œuvre une approche de santé publique fondée sur des données probantes pour améliorer la santé de la population.

Évaluation d'impact sur la santé et autres ressources

US - Guidance and Best Practices for Stakeholder Participation in HIA
Préparée par le Stakeholder Participation Working Group of the HIA of the Americas Workshop 2010, cette publication cible les praticiens en évaluation d’impacts sur la santé (ÉIS) qui travaillent à améliorer la participation des parties prenantes et du leadership dans la pratique de l'ÉIS. Il se penche sur les techniques de participation des parties prenantes, des études de cas, et des principes directeurs de divers domaines d'expertise, y compris l’ÉIS, l’évaluation de l'impact environnemental et social, l'utilisation du territoire et la planification des transports, la recherche-action communautaire et la santé publique.

US - Health Impact Assessment: National Nutrition Standards for Snack and a la Carte Foods and Beverages Sold in Schools
Cette évaluation de l'impact sur la santé (EIS), menée par le Health Impact Project et ses partenaires, a constaté que des normes nationales plus élevées sur la nutrition pour les collations et les boissons vendues dans les écoles pourraient aider les élèves à maintenir un poids santé et aider les écoles à augmenter leurs revenus de services alimentaires.

EUR - Health impact assessment in municipal decision-making
Ce document présente le contenu des séances de formation offertes par le groupe Policy, Health & Family Learning pour promouvoir l'utilisation de l'EIS dans les processus décisionnels municipaux.

EUR - Health Impact Assessment in the UK Planning System: the possibilities and limits of community engagement
Cet article, publié dans Health Promotion International, explore l'utilisation de l'évaluation d’impact sur la santé (EIS) comme un moyen de faciliter la participation communautaire dans la planification spatiale. Il décrit une étude de cas portant sur les plans d'un incinérateur de déchets dans une zone du centre-ville au Royaume-Uni, où l'EIS a été utilisé en réponse aux préoccupations de la communauté.

INT - Impact Assessment as a tool for Multisectoral Action for Health
Cette consultation d'experts menée par le WHO Centre for Health Development expose les arguments pour l'utilisation d’évaluations d'impact sur la santé, des recommandations sur la façon de procéder et des stratégies visant à promouvoir leur utilisation.

Michiko Hoshiko: Researching the use of health impact assessment in Japan and Australia

I have been conducting research related to health impact assessment in Japan since 2008 at the Kurume University School of Medicine. As part of this I have been involved in several HIAs, for example our health impact assessment of the transition to a “core city” (core cities are cities of more than 300,000 people that take on greater governmental autonomy and some of the responsibilities of prefectural governments) and a HIA of the redevelopment of a major hospital site. I have also been involved in the development of a HIA screening checklist for use in government.

Following the completion of my PhD I have been able to pursue further research into HIA, through a fellowship based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. My aims during the fellowship are:

1) Investigate the use of HIA screening checklists I will investigate the use made of the NSW Healthy Urban Development Checklist as a tool for engaging with local government officials around population health issues, comparing it with the checklist I developed at Kurume University in Japan.

2) Investigate the use of health impact assessment in local government I will investigate the use of health impact assessment and related tools to improve the population health impacts of decisions made by local government. In particular I will investigate process and procedural aspects of HIA that are associated with impacts on local government decision-making and implementation.

3) Investigate the use of health impact assessment in urban regeneration projects and major projects I will investigate the role of HIA in influencing the health impacts of urban regeneration projects, and its role in addressing health within major project assessment.

4) Investigate and compare the different barriers and facilitators for HIA’s use in Japan and Australia During my staying in Australia, I will conduct research on the different barriers and facilitators for HIA’s use, particularly on issues such as health service planning, urban sprawl, energy, and disaster response.

I hope to develop at least two academic journal articles on this program of research. If you’d like to find out more about my research or get in touch please email me at hmichi AT med.kurume-u.ac.jp

7 September 2012

Papua New Guinea Health Secretary ask for HIA to be performed routinely


An interesting article published this week in the PNG Post Courier. The Health Secretary ask companies operating with natural resources in the country to conduct HIA as part of their project management. The Health Secretary recognises that while environmental and social impact assessments are national requirements, HIA is not yet part of the mining code. The Health department might approach the government and ask to emend the mining code and he envisages a bigger role for the health sector in the management of the non-renewable resources.
Resource challenge

"THE Health Department is calling on all resource sector partners to provide health impact assessments.
That's according to Health Secretary Pasco Kase at the 48th medical symposium which started yesterday.
Mr Kase said the Health Department wanted to plan in advance with the resource sector on how best both parties could mitigate negative impacts and ensure the positive benefits were realised.
Mr Kase said currently the PNG Mining Act required companies to undertake environment and social impact assessments but did not require health impact assessments.
International best practices guidelines to implement health impact assessments have been established and are documented by both the international Council on mining and metals and the international finance corporations and both can be implemented in developing a policy framework for PNG.
The secretary noted that there were a number of countries throughout the South East Asia region such as the Philippines and Indonesia as well as Africa who had already chosen to enact laws that specifically ensure that a health impact assessment was carried out as part of mining project approvals.
This has allowed for better management of potential health risks on both mining company employees and also the surrounding communities.
"We will be approaching the Government to consider amending the mining act to ensure that Health Impact Assessments are undertaken as part of the licensing approval process,'' he said.
"This should start well before mine operations commence, as during pre-feasibility and feasibility- you are impacting on communities and the health system.''
Mr Kase said he wanted to ensure health impacts were identified early and systems were put in place to manage and mitigate the social impact, the potential severity of these impact on the livelihood of people and surrounding communities was vital for the mine, the community and the Government.
While acknowledging companies like Oil Search, Ok Tedi, Porgera Joint Venture and Lihir that support community health programs, he said the health sector wanted full participation with Government and other stakeholders.
He noted some of the potential health impacts of mining and these were:
* Infectious diseases: malaria, HIV and influence;
* Chronic diseases: heart disease, cancer, bronchitis and asthma;
* Nutrition disorders: malnutrition, vitamin deficiency and obesity;
* Physical injuries: accidents, poisoning and violence;
* Mental health and wellbeing: depression, stress and anxiety and;
* Health equity/inequalities: infant mortality and life expectancy between rich and poor, between groups and between other vulnerable people." 

1 September 2012

Thank you and Handover to Geneva!


Thank you to everyone particularly the volunteers and the staff of the hotel and the conference organising team, the worker bees, for making this a successful conference. Thanks to the local and the international scientific committee.

Will be debriefing on what went well and how we move the conference forward and what we can learn from your experiences and reflections of the conference.

Jena Simos, thank you for hosting such a wonderful conference and it is a great honour and huge pleasure for us to invite you to the next conference in Geneva. The organisations involved are the University of Geneva, WHO and the Swiss HIA Platform.

The date for your diary is October 2-4, 2013

  • Easy to get to Geneva
  • Will give you a free public transport pass
  • It will be at the Geneva International Confence Centre near the UN building
  • Cosmopolitan city, 450,000 inhabitants, 40% foreigners
  • Lots of things to see and do, and only 10 minutes from the countryside and other towns and cities and Mont Blanc!

Look forward to seeing you there, see you very soon!

Closing Speech: Future Challenges

 

  • A rapidly evolving agenda
  • A rapid dissemination of HIA worldwide
  • There is a complementary/synergy between HIA and HiAP
  • From knowledge, to know how, to being

  • Push/pull approach: developing more pull approaches, importance of working with communities and risk of reduced participation, what can we bring to other sectors rather than what they can bring to us
  • Smart beaver: several approaches, several methods, importance of contextualising and maintaining diversity, a strategic approach combined with a methodological approach, having a law is not enough

  • Sharing knowledge: accessible, quality, timely information, transparent process, build trust
  • Capacity building: intersectoral network development (professionals and decisionmakers)
  • Learning through practice, online training, mentoring

  • What is the role of HIA compared to other types of IA
  • How can we commit with other sectors outside of health including decisionmakers and the economic sectors

  • Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
  • How can we improve the conceptualisation of equity and vulnerability within HIA

  • This is a startegic approach to consider health in all policies
  • Importance of establishing a worldwide collaborative network supported by WHO


Plenary 4: HIA in Decision-making: what we know and what we need to know

Welcome to this last plenary!

Informing decision-makers and creating change with HIA
Rob Quigley
  • Lots of HIAs in New Zealand, 51, on many different topics and mostly at local level
  • Most done because its a good idea
  • 17 have been evaluated, Ministry of Health funded mostly
  • Meta evaluation of 24 NZ HIAs
  • Does HIA work, HIA WORKS!

What does HIA achieve
  • Inform and change the proposal
  • After the proposal development process
  • Inform and change other work streams, and organisational thinking and action
  • Develops knowledge of HIA and the social determinants of health
  • Develop ....


Quotes of participants
  • I started this process wondering what health had to do with a graffiti policy ... Now I know.


HIA works when:
  • Technical knowledge and skills - determinants,
  • Soft skills - partnership working, consult with communities and stakeholders, influence decision-makers, flexible, reality testing, leadership
  • Apply our values - Gothenburg Consensus state stat values are at the heart of HIA
  • Covering difficult determinants
  • Harder to reach populations
  • Inequalities
  • Clarifying communication about policy


What is (sometimes) less important
  • Time and money
  • Quantification
  • Being an expert at the start, capacity can be built along the way, or supported via mentoring


What is really really important
  • Knowing your HIA process is sound
  • Knowing you HIA will add value - under promise and over deliver


What's the future: how do we open the door, beyond one off effective HIAs?
  • HiAP
  • Leadership (public health and political)



Effective population health practice: where does HIA fit?
Rajiv Bhatia



  • Our goals are multiple and one of the ways we used to help us achieve this is HIA, HIA can allow us to achieve all of these goals

Outcomes of HIA practice in San Francisco
  • Enabled the relevance of the public health agency and health determinants to policy
  • Participation in policy networks
  • Involvement
  • ...

From research measures to performance measures
  • Translated injury measures to injuries per mile and helped focus on 5% of roads
  • This has helped other sectors and policy to tackle this because it seemed more manageable

From policy analysis to policy development and implementation
  • No regulation on levels of indoor air pollution in houses from nearby roads
  • We developed a new law rather than waiting for it to emerge from others or national level
Need engagement across the policy cycle


Strategic uses of HIA
  • Use HIA t o identify and answer new policy questions
  • Multiple decision targets
  • ...

Factors contributing to our success
  • Built on existing priorities
  • Found ways to be helpful to other public agencies and communities
  • Brought data and scientific evidence to controversies
  • Recognised existing public health agency authority and responsibility
  • ...

What do decision makers want?
  • Value and benefit of rather constituencies
  • ...

  • HIA may serve multiple purposes at different times
  • Use of HIA has to be one part of a larger public health engagement with policy processes
  • ...


Future: open government agenda
  • Facilitating open data access to health and community indicators
  • Supporting data application development
  • Acquiring new public source data


Analysis of impact of the processes of decisions
Andre Fortier
  • In Quebec, ministers follow a consensus based approach and are collectively responsible decisions.
  • If a decision is not controversial or has issues then it can take 4-8 weeks, for those that aren't can take much much longer.
  • Assessment of impacts is integral to the decision making process, there are 16 topics that are assessed.
  • Section 54 is the act that covers the health topic and how it needs to be considered.

  • Government asks MSSS to provide advise and guidance on the issues in relation to the policy being decided on.
  • Sometimes information is not enough because of lack of data, conflicting evidence and conflicting expert opinions.
Any political decision involves an area of uncertainty and we ned to be humble and recognising our limititations in how the uncertainty can be reduced, need to continue the search for knowledge to help reduce the uncertainty and help improve public health.


Q&A
Where does HIA works

  • The intent is right
  • The team understands the political context and the role and power of new knowledge
  • A mandate that HIA should be done can be unproductive and counterproductive
  • Having legislation helps to ensure that public health units can get involved in decision making, gives them the right and authority
  • But we have to make sure that they take place early in the process so that solutions can be developed that can lead to consensus decisions.

Q: in what area have recommendations of a HIA are more easily accepted e.g. in Quebec, in your opinion? And where recommendations are not accepted and not implemented by a Government is there some other process such as the Ombudsman in Quebec?

A: Where the recommendations affect the economic feasibility or where the recommendations involve restrictions on the public. The ombudsman has a lot of latitude but you need to think about the fact that the public health system is part of government so that going out to other structures is problematic. Our role is to clarify and inform a decision and for elected officials to make the decision.

A: Where the recommendations are beyond the power or responsibilities of the decisionmaker.

A: It is important to make recommendations, coming with solutions that can't be implemented by decisionmakers are there alternatives that are feasible that achieve the same outcomes as the draft recommendations. Need to have dialogue to develop the most feasible recommendations. Often HIA can have. A laundry list of recommendations and often less is more, the ones that are most important.



Q: How do decisonmakers manage the volume of policy that they have to decide?

A: it is through provide information and analysis of draft proposals so that some policies are not taken forward because of what the assessment has found in the early policy development process.

Parallel Session 5: Food and Agriculture Related HIAs


  • Not many HIAs on food and agriculture internationally
  • Challenges of dealing with multiple sectors
  • Have a discussion on the issues hopefully

Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Policy, HB 2800 (State Level Policy)
Tia Henderson



What is Farm to school?

  • Buying local food
  • Educating children about where food comes from and why food is important
  • Promoting home grown and local foods
  • Involve people in local community garden activities
  • $200,000 competitive grant program, reimbursement for school lunches made from local foods and local garden activities


HIA Goals

  • Inform Oregon legislative process
  • Outline linkages and magnitude of interactions between policy and health outcomes
  • Inform Agency plans
  • Act as a exemplar for others doing food HIAs


HIA process

  • Two advisory committees
  • Key informant interviews
  • A State wide survey
  • Two Community Forums
  • Communications Workshop


New methodology aspects:

  • Economic analysis - of jobs that would be created
  • Looked at food security/insecurity

Findings

  • Employment
  • Educational for duets and children
  • Improved diet and through improved nutrition improved learning at school
  • Improve physical activity
Recommendations:

  • Only produced and processed in state grown food not packaged
  • Prioritise the schools
  • Develop multi component projects linked to other non health projects/programmes





National Nutrition Standards HIA




  • US Secretary of Agriculture is required to establish dietary standar for food in schools.
  • Competitive foods - snacks sold in schools; may eat school canteen, bring food from home, etc.


Objectives of HIA

  • This is a health focused policy so ingesting to think about the value of doing a HIA
  • Aim was to build a much stronger base for action
  • Schools consider selling such foods are an important revenue stream and hence there was likely to be resistance


How will we engage stakeholders for a national policy was an issue we had to grapple with.



Assessment methods for analysis of impacts

  • We assumed that the draft regulations would follow dietary guidelines
  • Regulations would retract access to unhealthy food and enhance access to healthier foods
  • Would reduce the risk of poor nutrition
  • Revenue analysis was quite a sophisticated analysis, looked at other schools with similar policies showed that they got more revenue from federal grants and that the net affect on income was negligible/small
  • Did look at minority ethnic communities and judged that they would benefit as well


Recommendations

  • Follow sodium, fat, restrictions
  • Have calories restrictions
  • Provide school with tools and guides on models for implementing these regulations




Hawaii County Agriculture Development Plan


  • Lot of food imports even though a significant amount of land in Hawaii is agricultural
  • Aim to analyse she health and economic implications
  • Limited institutional buying
  • Small amount of food agriculture for local markets
  • 1 in 4 of adults and 1 in 3 in receipt of food welfare benefits
  • High ovweight/obesity
  • High unemployment
  • Colonial issues


Key findings

  • Increase institutional buying
  • Increase selling in local markets, eg use of the food befit smart card to buy local foods, etc.
  • Increase community growing


Outcomes

  • Greater investment in food processing infrastructure
  • More coordinated thinking across all the islands
  • Development of farm to school projects
Q&A

  • None of the commissioned by decisionmakers, funded by NGOs
  • Have inputted into the decision making process, waiting to see what happens as presidential elections in November
  • In one were invited to give testimony and some of the commendations were incorporated, Oregon HIA
  • Have built bridges




Parallel Session 4: Approaches, Methods and Tools - HIA at local level

Developing Jurisdiction Specific HIA Tools in Toronto
Olanna White

Mixed Waste Processing HIA pilot. Evaluation of the pilot HIA found that:
  • Health considered in decision making
  • Stakeholder involvement
  • Improved partnerships within the organisation
  • Framework proved adaptable
  • Time and resource intensive
  • Framework document was lengthy and required expertise to use
  • Better suited to environmental projects and programmes

Found that steps of the process were not linear sometimes screen g, scoping and assessment occurred at the same time and we did not consider monitoring and evaluation.


We don't do formal HIAs because staff find it overwhelming at the moment. There have also been missed opportunities to do HIA.


Can we adapt the HIA process or do we have to follow all the steps. Yes, we developed the Draft Torornto Public Health HIA Checklist.



Revitalising Thailand's Community Health Impact Assessment
Somporn Pengkam


Concept
  • Considered a social tool for community development with a focus on community determination

Process and procedure
  • 4 steps
  • Developing tools
  • Assessing the health of a community
  • Ovine towards decision making
  • Monitoring and evaluation

Practices
  • ...

Lessons learnt
  • Tool for development of public policy on health
  • Enhancing participatory democracy
  • Mutual learning across sectors
  • Tool for empowerment
  • CHIA: CORE VALUE, HOLISTIC, INTEGRATION, ASSESSMENT

Challenges
  • Shift the parading on health
  • Shift paradigm on impact assessment
  • Shift paradigm on community right protection


Next Steps

  • Building a clear understanding of key concepts, knowledge, guideline different fields
  • Creating a critical mass around quality and expertise
  • Develop concrete applications


Q&A




Q: How do you help communities access literature on health so that they can look at the evidence on health impacts?

A: In Thailand, the community asks the Commission and agencies support the community accessing and understanding the literature.

A: In Italy, public health act as the representative of the community so that we are still looking at this issue.



I: Healthevidence.ca is a website provides systematic reviews of key areas of evidence.



Q: one o fthe main challenge in community participation in HIA is how we reach 'hard to reach' groups, they don't normally get involved, 'invisible' populations?

A: In Thailand, we don't look at the physical village or district level, we start from a small group concerned about an impact and then other people start joining the process.



I: Our experience use PATH CHIA our process is to train local people to lead the process, and then get the community to develo their own tool, in our local context 56 focus groups were used to develop the tool.