HIA2007 Conference South East Asia & Oceania HIA Conference

Stephen Green CHETRE, University of New South Wales, Australia » www.hiaconnect.edu.au

HIA2007 Conference Special Issue

HIA2007 South East Asia and Oceania HIA Conference

Thailand: Recent Experiences Participate in the HIA2008 Conference in Chiang Mai

NSW Developmental HIA Sites Coffs Harbour and Oran Park/Turner Road HIAs

HIA Training 27-29 February 2008

NZ HIA Support Unit Building capacity for HIA in New Zealand

To HIA or Not to HIA? To Integrate or Stand Alone

Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment A Toolkit from the UK

What’s New?

Issue 19 January 2008 The HIA2007 South East Asia and

Oceania Health Impact Assessment Conference was held in Sydney from 7-9 November 2007. The conference was a great success, with more than 180 HIA practitio-ners attending from more than a dozen countries.

The conference showcased the diverse range of HIA activity that is occurring across the Asia Pacific region, including an impressive array of activity in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR, and South Korea. Of particular interest was the Whanau Ora HIA Tool developed by the Maori Health Policy Team in the

New Zealand Ministry of Health. The tool aims to empower communities and stakeholder groups to support Maori health and wellbeing and to reduce inequali-ties.

eNews

Delegates at the HIA2007 Conference

Get past issues from »

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Health Impact Assessment: A practical guide

The UNSW Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation and NSW Health have developed a guide to undertaking a HIA. The guide aims to provide people with a practical understanding of HIA, its steps, concepts and theories.

Health Impact Assessment: A practical guide was informed by the experiences of over 20 health impacts assessments that have been undertaken in NSW, supported by the NSW HIA project.

The guide can be downloaded from tinyurl.com/32x8hf. For a print copy of the guide and/or more information about HIA please phone +61 2 9612 0640 or by email at s.m.green@unsw.edu.au

tinyurl.com/32x8hf

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HIA2007 Conference Australian states were well represented at the conference, delivering insightful and informative presentations regarding the recent development of HIA in their states. Dianne Katscherian from the Western Australian Department of Health and Professor Jeff Spickett from the Curtin University of Technology have completed a useful HIA on the health impacts of climate change and adaptation measures. Jessica McCormick from Monash University presented on the work that has been occurring with local government and on neighbourhood renewal. Many of the presentations

from New South Wales showcased the work that has occurred over the past five years, including several HIAs on local government proposals and land use planning.

Overall the conference highlighted the large amount of work that has been done and the growing momentum that is gathering around HIA in the Asia Pacific. This was demonstrated by the work presented by pioneering countries from the region such as Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. It is also evident that interest, resources and experience in the Asia Pacific Region are growing, and that there is an increasingly large pool of

experienced practitioners in the region. This will hopefully see the Asia Pacific region moving in an independent and less Euro-centric direction when it comes to HIA and its development. Hopefully the conference will lead to increased intersectoral action to improve health across the region, by consolidating our understanding of HIA and its applications.

NSW HIA eNews

Disclaimer The NSW HIA Project is funded by the NSW Department of Health. Views expressed here are not necessarily those of the NSW Department of Health. This newsletter is brought to you by the HIA Project Team at the UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity. Content within this newsletter was accurate at the time of publication.

www.hiaconnect.edu.au

Funded by

HIA2007 Conference Presentations & Audio

Presentations and audio files of plenary sessions can be

downloaded from the conference website

www.hia2007.com

Yolande Stone, Director of Strategies and System Innovation, NSW

Department of Planning

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Professor Richard Morgan from Otago University speaking about “Linking HIA

and Other Forms of Impact Assessment”

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HIA2007 Conference Principal Sponsors

Conference Supporting Sponsors

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The HIA2007 South East Asia and Oceania Regional Health Impact Assessment Conference reflected important progress in HIA develop-ment. One hundred and eighty health officers, practitioners and academics from countries within and outside the region coming together to share their resources, ideas and experiences of HIA and related issues through a wide range of activities such as discussions, presentations, plenary speeches and training.

Thailand’s Experience at the HIA2007 Conference With over 7 years’ experiences on HIA application and development and with HIA being recognized in the national constitution and the newly enforced Health Act, Thailand played very active roles in this conference. Almost 20 delegates represented major agencies from Thailand’s HIA development network including the National Health Commission Office, the

Department of Health, the Health Systems Research Institute and the Healthy Public Policy Foundation, the Office of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy and Planning, Khon Kaen University and Maha Sarakham University. Nine papers and two posters were presented in

Thailand: Recent Experiences A Call for Participation in the HIA2008 Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand Wipawa Chuenchit and Somporn Pengkam Healthy Public Policy Foundation and National Health Commission Office, Thailand » www.hpp-hia.or.th

Amphon Jindawatthana, Secretary-General of the Thai National Health

System Office, and Narongsakdi Aungkasuvapala, Director-General of

the Thai Department of Health, announcing the HIA2008 conference

in Chiang Mai, Thailand

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the concurrent sessions and four speeches were delivered in the plenary sessions. Thai participants also discussed and shared their experiences in pre-conference trainings and the Asia-Pacific HIA Network Meeting. The topics of the inclusion of HIA in the Thai Constitu-tion and National Health Act and on the successful application of HIA for healthy public policy drew a lot of attention from conference partici-pants.

Apart from their contribution to the conference, Thai participants learned numerous lessons from it. For example, the ‘learning by doing’ approach to building HIA capacity, which has been undertaken by the New South Wales HIA Project, provides practical skills and knowl-edge to health officers and local governments as they have taken part in conducting HIA case studies themselves. In addition, the equity dimension to HIA that was fre-quently stressed by colleagues from CHETRE is very important for HIA to be a truly effective tool in promot-ing health for all.

The concept of Community Health Impact Assessment Tools (CHIAT) as described by Canadian representa-tives from the People Accessing Their Health (PATH) Project was very interesting since it encourages communities to contemplate health and determinants of health through an entirely participatory process. This led to local people being aware and taking better control of their health and the issues affecting it. The Welsh experience on health impacts from mining was particu-larly interesting to the Thai dele-gates as the health impacts of mining have been a common issue in many parts of Thailand.

Some of these lessons are being turned into real actions. The most current one is the training course for regional health centers being organized by the Department of Health in collaboration with the Healthy Public Policy Foundation. In Thailand, although HIA has been practiced by communities and some civil society groups for some time, only a small number of public health officers and local governments have ever conducted a HIA. Therefore,

Thailand: Recent Experiences

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“The Thai National Health Commission Office is planning to promote the use of community-based HIA. This will include applying/experimenting with the People Assessing Their Health project’s model of Community Health Impact Assessment in rural Thai contexts and promoting case studies in various settings.”

“The conference organisers would also like you to participate in the process of program design. If you have any idea or comments, please feel free to let us know.”

the next phase of this HIA capacity building program will concentrate on encouraging and supporting the trainees to have more hands-on experience on HIA.

Furthermore, National Health Commission Office is planning to promote the use of community-based HIA. This will include apply-ing/experimenting with the PATH

project’s model of CHIAT in the rural Thai contexts and promoting case studies in various settings including potash mining in Udon Thani province, gold mining in Loei province, and a coal-fired power plant project proposal in Samut Songkram province.

HIA 2008 in Chiang Mai, Thailand The 2nd South East Asia and Oceania Regional Health Impact Assessment Conference will be held from 8-10 December 2008 in Chiang Mai province, Thailand. The conference will be hosted by the National Health Commission and co-hosted by many agencies such as the Department of Health, the Ministry of Public Health, the Health Systems Research Institute, Khon Kaen University, the Healthy Public Policy Foundation and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.

The conference’s main objective will be to promote HIA and strengthen HIA networking in South East Asia and Oceania. The conference theme will be Empowering People, Ensuring Health, with the goal of including every person and every sector in society in ensuring health.

The highlight of HIA2008 will be an on-the-scene conference, which will include site visits, where local and global connections for change will be discussed and this will hopefully lead to the Chiang Mai declaration on HIA. The conference organisers would also like you to participate in the process of program design. If you have any idea or comments, please feel free to let us know. For more information, please see www.hia2008chiangmai.com

Thailand: Recent Experiences

HIA2008 Conference

Information on this year’s conference can be found at

www.hia2008chiangmai.com

Images of previous HIA events held in Thailand

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The Proposal The Coffs Harbour HIA focused on the Coffs Harbour City Council’s Our Living City Settlement Strategy, an urban development strategy which provides a blueprint for the vision of a healthy, smart and cultural city, based on the “triple bottom line” objectives of environmental, economic and social sustainability (www.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au).

The HIA The goal of the Coffs Harbour HIA was to develop a set of evidence-based recommendations to inform Council policy and ongoing planning (e.g. the Local Environment Plan and Development Control Plans). The areas scoped for the HIA were urban design and transport in relation to community connectedness. A range of recommendations that incorpo-rated healthy urban design principles of walkable, cycleable, connected and mixed use neighbourhoods were developed and endorsed by the HIA Steering Committee. A further area of recommendation was around community engagement in urban development projects.

Insights • An important aspect of the

process was the pre-screening activity (see Health Impact Assessment: A Practical Guide). It is worth gaining a really good understanding of the organisation you are going to undertake the HIA with, not just management and organisational structures, but also ways of working, how

decisions are made and reporting processes. A thorough under-standing of the proposal was also beneficial.

• Developing a clear and compre-hensive Terms of Reference during the scoping phase pays off in the end. The temptation is to get on with the ‘doing’ stages; however a comprehensive set of Terms of Reference allows the next stages to occur in a straightforward manner.

• Using an assessment matrix was challenging yet successful. It was considered to be a good tool to identify differential impacts when developing recommendations.

• The evaluation demonstrated that all members of the steering group felt that the HIA was a really worthwhile activity.

• Support from CHETRE was invaluable – a real key to the success of our project.

• Providing an evidence base to the work was considered a key outcome of the HIA by Council partners.

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NSW Developmental Sites Coffs Harbour Our Living City Settlement Strategy Health Impact Assessment Andrew Tugwell and Pam Johnson North Coast Area Health Service, New South Wales, Australia

Coffs Harbour HIA Steering Committee

The Coffs Harbour HIA and the Oran Park and Turner Road HIA that are detailed in this issue were undertaken as part of the NSW HIA Project. For more information on the project go to http://www.hiaconnect.edu.au/nsw_hia_project.htm

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To find out more about local government in New South Wales look at these websites:

NSW Department of Local Government http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au

Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW http://www.lgsa.org.au

NSW Local Government Community Services Association http://www.lgcsa.org.au

iPlan http://www.iplan.nsw.gov.au

Next Steps Having completed the HIA in September 2007 the next step will be to follow up on the monitoring and evaluation of the HIA’s recommendations. A 12 month review was agreed to at the final steering group meeting and avenues for reporting were identified within the Council.

On Learning by Doing Evaluation of the local HIA highlighted the importance of training and support. The support included participation in key meetings during the step-by-step HIA approach, which assisted progression of the HIA. Having the CHETRE support throughout the process helped ensure that the HIA was effective whilst still being a learning experience. The HIA involved three Area Health Service workers, one being a designated to work on the HIA for six weeks. Feedback identified that this had a twofold benefit; the advantage of working through the HIA process as a group which offered support and shared learning; and the benefit of the Area Health Service identifying dedicated resources to conduct the HIA.

NSW Developmental Sites The full Coffs Harbour HIA report is

available from HIA Connect »

http://www.hiaconnect.edu.au

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Coffs Harbour City Centre

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“In May 2007, the NSW Government released detailed draft plans to develop 12,000 new homes in Sydney’s South West with construction to start as early as 2008. Oran Park and Turner Road are the first two precincts in the South West Growth Centre to be developed.”

The Proposal The Oran Park and Turner Road HIA follows on from a HIA that was conducted on the Sydney Metropoli-tan Strategy. City of Cities - A Plan for Sydney’s Future is a 25 year plan for Sydney’s development, and it includes provisions for 400,000 new dwellings in Western Sydney by 2031. In May 2007, the NSW Government released detailed draft plans to develop 12,000 new homes in Sydney’s South West with construction to start as early as 2008. Oran Park and Turner Road are the first two precincts in the South West Growth Centre to be developed.

Oran Park/Turner Road Development The Oran Park and Turner Road precincts are located in the Camden local government area in the South West of Sydney. The precincts are surrounded by rural land in the West and North.

The 1145 hectare Oran Park precinct includes 7,500 new homes for around 22,000 new residents, around 17 hectares of employment land and nearly 30 hectares of commercial and retail area. The precinct includes 36 km of walking and cycling routes and more than 10% (142 hectares) will be open space.

The 572 hectare Turner Road precinct includes 4000 new homes for around 11,000 new residents. The precinct includes around 13.5 hectares of commercial and retail areas, 27 km of walking and cycling routes and 80 hectares will be open space.

The HIA A screening tool was used to determine whether a HIA could add value to the development planning process. Several health determi-nants were identified as potentially being positively or negatively impacted as a result of the development, including access to and production of fresh food, physical activity, air quality, the built environment and land use, noise, water, crime, education, employ-ment, family cohesion, housing, recreation and social cohesion.

The HIA steering group recom-mended that HIA be undertaken to identify:

• The potential positive and negative impact of the Oran Park / Turner Road development.

• Recommendations that can improve the health and wellbeing

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NSW Developmental Sites Oran Park and Turner Road Health Impact Assessment Alice Wood and Liz Millen Sydney South West Area Health Service, New South Wales, Australia

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of future residents in the Oran Park and Turner Road precincts or minimise potential harm to their health.

The main issues scoped for consideration in the HIA were:

• Transport and • Urban form, particularly as it

pertains to social connectivity, food access, injury and physical activity.

The HIA was scoped as a rapid level prospective HIA. Reasons for this choice included the short timeframe for opportunity to influence precinct planning, the evidence that had already been collected as part of the HIA on the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy. One of the obvious limitations of the rapid approach is that there are only limited opportunities to consult with prospective stakeholders.

Insights so Far The HIA is still being finalised but the following insights have already emerged:

• The precinct plans appears to have followed good design guidelines for reduction of car

dependence and promotion of public and active transport.

• Timeliness of implementation of some key recommendations will be critical; there may be a need for transport subsidies in the early stages of the development.

• Social infrastructure will need to be established early in the development as surrounding suburbs already have capacity gaps.

• Relevant partners and stake-holders are important to ensure the HIA’s recommendations are implemented and to maximise its impact on decision-making. It is important to engage partners early in a HIA.

• There is value in learning from the experience of others in doing HIAs.

• There is an extensive amount of literature that links urban development/renewal to health and wellbeing.

• HIAs require the commitment of staff resources from manage-ment.

• HIA guidelines provided as part of the training assisted greatly in doing the job.

• There is value in learning by doing.

NSW Developmental Sites

A three day HIA training course will be run at the University of New South Wales in Sydney from Wednesday 27 - Friday 29 February 2008.

This practical and interactive training will cover a range of HIA related topics:

• introduction to HIA

• the steps of HIA

• uses and applications of HIA

• practical issues associated with doing HIAs

• discussions with practitioners who have done HIAs

People who attend the training will gain the skills and understanding to enable them to undertake a HIA at a beginner level.

More Information http://www.hiaconnect.edu.au/hia_training.htm

Ben Harris-Roxas +61 2 9612 0779 b.harris-roxas@unsw.edu.au

HIA Training 27-29 February 2008

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The New Zealand HIA Support Unit was recently established in August 2007. It seeks to:

• raise awareness about HIA

• build partnerships • provide advice,

guidance and support • to build an evidence

base for HIAs • Create capacity

The Public Health Advisory Committee (PHAC) has laid the groundwork for HIA in New Zealand. Since 1998 it has undertaken a range of work including the production of An Idea Whose Time has Come (2007), a report outlining the work to date on HIA in New Zealand; and A Guide to Health Impact Assessment (2005), a comprehensive resource that has been used at local, regional and national level.

In August 2007 an HIA Support Unit was established to take forward the development of HIA both within the Ministry of Health and across sectors. The Unit is located within the Office of the Director of Public Health, in the Health & Disability Systems Strategy Directorate.

Its aims are:

• To contribute to improving health outcomes and reducing health inequalities in New Zealand

• To embed health impact assessment into public policy development processes to support better and more informed decision making

The following core roles have been identified to achieve these aims:

• Raise awareness about health impact assessment and the tools available to undertake health impact assessment at policy or project level,

• Support the development and effective use of the health impact assessment approach in New Zealand through building partnerships with key statutory, voluntary, community and private organisations,

• Provide technical advice, guidance and support to those who are in the process of starting or undertaking a health impact assessment,

• Build up an evidence base of information, tips, case studies, and good practice in New Zealand and overseas and contribute to the provision of new research that will inform and improve judgements about the potential impacts of policies, programmes and projects on health, and

• Create capacity through the provision of awareness raising presentations, training sessions on the use of HIA, its value and benefits within and across organisations and the facilitation of rapid appraisals.

It has been agreed that there should be a phased approach to the development of the Unit:

New Zealand HIA Support Unit Paula Hawley Evans and Frances Graham HIA Support Unit, Ministry of Health, New Zealand » www.moh.govt.nz/hiasupportunit

New Zealand HIA Support Unit HIA eNews

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Phase I – Setting the Foundations (August 2007 – June 2008), Phase II – Delivery (July 2008 – June 2009), and Phase III – Embedding (July 2009 – beyond).

The first phase is well underway. The unit has held an intersectoral workshop to set out its work programme, which will include setting a baseline for the work to measure progress against, exploring opportunities for possible HIAs and promoting tools such as Whanau Ora HIA. We have been raising awareness of the unit: producing two issues of our HIA e-newsletter for September and November 2007, setting up a new website and producing an information leaflet.

We have given a number of presentations at various events including the Inaugural South East Asian and Oceania HIA Conference in Sydney. We have also been

building the unit’s capacity by recruiting to the second Senior Advisor post to bring the unit up to full capacity. This work will be supported by the recent introduction of the Public Health Bill (to replace the Health Act 1956) into Parliament, which includes clauses on HIAs on a discretionary basis.

There is an extremely positive environment for the development of HIA in New Zealand; it is definitely an idea whose time has come.

For more information visit the Unit’s website www.moh.govt.nz/hiasupportunit or contact Senior Advisors Paula Hawley-Evans on +64 4 816 2837 or Frances Graham, on +64 4 816 2672.

To HIA or not to HIA, that is the question Robert Bos World Health Organization, Switzerland » www.who.int

The Gap In a forthcoming issue of the Environmental Impact Assessment Review, four authors (Erlanger, Krieger, Singer and Utzinger) will draw attention to the imbalance in HIA’s use in the developing versus the developed world. A literature review shows that 94 out of a 100 articles published on HIA looks at its application in industrialized countries. Yet, we are at the doorstep of major developments of water resources and mineral

resources in developing countries, notably in Africa. Lack of conducive policy frameworks, institutional arrangements and human capacity are identified to be at the root of this 94/6 gap.

An important consideration in this discussion is that of the level of integration of health in the impact assessment process. This was also an important subject of discussion at the recent South East Asia and Oceania Regional Health Impact

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“The key seems to lie at the screening stage of the impact assessment procedure. As the debate continues, it will be important to define criteria that can be applied in the decision over full HIA versus health integrated in EIA. Building up evidence from case studies will be an important part of this process.”

Assessment Conference in Sydney Australia.

Health in EIA EIA specialists look warily at the increased profile of HIA. Health was traditionally a part of EIA, and this made sense most of the time in the industrialised country context. Air, water and soil pollution were important causes of ill-health in the post-World War II years. Yet, the health sector was increasingly dissatisfied with the exclusive focus on environmental determinants of health in EIAs. It limited, unnecessarily, the scope of the assessment and of the safeguards and mitigating measures.

Yet, this does not mean that health should now always have its own special niche carved out in the world of impact assessment. Resource constraints call for strategic thinking on this matter. A cement factory

may do very well with a health component in its EIA, because of size, boundaries and limited vulnerable groups. That a hydro-electric dam, on the other hand, with its range of changes in environmental and social determinants, within geographical boundaries not necessarily coinciding with those for environmental impacts, requires a stand-alone (albeit coordinated) HIA is beyond doubt.

Bridging the Gap The key seems to lie at the screening stage of the impact assessment procedure. As the debate continues, it will be important to define criteria that can be applied in the decision over full HIA versus health integrated in EIA. Building up evidence from case studies will be an important part of this process.

To HIA or not to HIA, that is the question

Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment Developing a Process for Assessing Impact on Mental Wellbeing Anthea Cooke on behalf of a partnership in England Inukshuk Consulting, England

How can we raise awareness and support policy-makers, planners and people delivering programmes and services in understanding how they are, and could, improve the mental well-being of communities? Essentially, to build mentally healthy public policy. Does HIA practice generate this information, and if so, could it be improved? These were just a couple of the questions that

were asked over four years ago in London and, latterly, the north west of England by myself and others working in HIA and mental health. A Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment (MWIA) toolkit was subsequently developed and tested out on over 200 rapid MWIAs and a Comprehensive Mental Well-being Impact Assessment (MWIA) on Liverpool ‘08 European Capital of

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Culture. It has now been published as a ‘living and working document’.

It can be argued that mental well-being should be integrated into existing HIA. The first task undertaken, therefore, was a review of eight existing HIA tools to assess to what extent they addressed mental well-being. Apart from an early version of a MWIA toolkit developed in London, the review found that tools had limited scope to identify impact on mental well-being.

The London MWIA toolkit was improved to produce a practical and evidence based toolkit for use at policy and project level that contains:

• Screening tool – a 30 minute exercise

• Protective Factors – a table of evidence based on population characteristics, protective factors and social determinants of mental well-being

• Assessment tool – a framework for rapid or comprehensive MWIA

• Indicators guidance – how to develop indicators

• Appendices – practical exercises/ worksheets to support the whole process

Liverpool 08 Capital of Culture MWIA The MWIA partnership secured funding to undertake the first comprehensive MWIA with Liverpool 08 Capital of Culture. Sixteen proposals from the programme were screened. Stakeholder workshops were held for eight of the proposals. These were selected with the intention of maintaining a portfolio of proposals across the Culture Company.

Issues of particular interest that were identified by stakeholders were:

• Engaging communities and bringing people together.

• Influencing decisions. • Trust & communication. • Access. • Evaluation. • Physical environment. • Reducing discrimination.

Recommendations were developed in the stakeholder workshops. Some of these were specific to the proposal being assessed, and others had more general implications for the Liverpool Culture Company.

The process involved was engaging and participatory, gaining contributions from a wide range of people to the development of recommendations and indicators. The discussions during the workshops and evaluations indicated that individuals gained an understanding of mental well-being through participating.

Cover of the MWIA Toolkit

“How can we raise awareness and support policy-makers, planners and people delivering programmes and services in understanding how they are, and could, improve the mental well-being of communities?”

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MWIA Contact Jude Stansfield Public Mental Health Lead

Care Services Improvement Partnership North West Development Centre

England, UK

Email: jude.stansfield@csip.org.uk

North West England Pioneers The inspiration and need for the MWIA tool and its development within the North West region had involved and been influenced by many wider stakeholders. It was important, therefore, to build capacity amongst those interested stakeholders and to ensure the sustainability and effective dissemination of the tool in the North West. Additional funding was given to develop the ‘Pioneers Initiative’ that would:

• Facilitate dissemination and implementation of the tool within localities;

• Build capacity, capability and interest within the region through exemplar individuals and organisations;

• Enable sustainability through a cascaded model of support; and

• Provide examples of the tool’s impact and effectiveness.

Training and support was provided to five sites to undertake MWIAs on local public policy, and following the

success of this a further five projects are now undergoing training and support.

The Toolkit has received a lot of interest from the HIA and mental health community. It appears to be a timely initiative as support and momentum for improving mental health grows, and more broadly a focus on well-being. We are still in the first year of use and testing. It is hoped it will be used widely and feedback received to improve the toolkit into the next year. The Toolkit has been written as a practical and off the shelf guide to undertaking MWIA. It is practical but complex and we have found that support and training is helpful.

Please download the toolkit and give feedback www.northwest.csip.org.uk/mwia

Anthea Cooke is the HIA consultant working on the MWIA project. She presented the work at the South East Asian and Oceania Regional Health Impact Assessment

Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment

A Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment Workshop

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What’s New? HIA Publications and Events

Reports Harris P et al. (2007) Health Impact Assessment: A practical guide, UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity: Sydney. http://www.hiaconnect.edu.au/files/Health_Impact_Assessment_ A_Practical_Guide.pdf NZ Ministry of Health (2007) Whanau Ora Health Impact Assessment: Wellington. http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/6022/$File/whanau-ora-hia-2007.pdf Sears M. (2007) The Medical Perspective on Environmental Sensitivities, Canadian Human Rights Commission: Ottawa. http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/pdf/envsensitivity_en.pdf Thomas J, Harden A. (2007) Methods for the Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Research in Systematic Reviews, ESRC National Centre for Research Methods: London. http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/outputs/publications/WorkingPapers/2007/1007_JTAHthematic_synthesis.pdf WHO (2007) Global Age-friendly Cities: A guide, World Health Organization: Geneva. http://www.who.int/entity/ageing/publications/Global_age_friendly_cities_Guide_English.pdf Wismar M et al. (Eds.) (2007) The Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies: Copenhagen. http://www.euro.who.int/document/E90794.pdf

Journal Articles Erlanger T et al. (2008) The 6/94 Gap in Health Impact Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, In Press http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2007.07.003 Nilunger Mannheimer L et al. (2007) Window of Opportunity for Intersectoral Health Policy in Sweden: Open, half-open or half-shut?, Health Promotion International, 22(4): 307-315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dam028 Rao M et al. (2007) The Built Environment and Health, Lancet, 370(9593): 1111-1113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61260-4 Upcoming Conferences 4-10 May 2008 International Association for Impact Assessment 2008 Conference Perth, Australia http://www.iaiaconference.org/?p=Page&id=3 6-9 July 2008 Australian Population Health Congress Brisbane, Australia http://www.populationhealth congress.org.au 8-10 October 2008 2008 International HIA Conference Liverpool, England 8-10 December 2008 HIA2008 2nd South East Asia and Oceania HIA Conference Chiang Mai, Thailand http://www.hia2008chiangmai.com

Subscribers Top 330 for the Asia Pacific HIA Email List!

An email list has been set up for practitioners and those with an interest in health impact assessment from across the Asia Pacific region. The list currently has 330 members.

The list is intended to provide a mechanism for information exchange and networking across the Asia Pacific region.

To subscribe to the list send an email to majordomo@explode. unsw.edu.au with "subscribe hia-seao" as the body of the email (remove the inverted commas).

For more information on the list go to http://www.hiaconnect.edu.au/asia_pacific_HIA_listserv.htm

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