HIA for HPP...Towards healthy nation: Thailand's recent experience.

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The push for Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in Thailand has been under way since the onset of the most recent wave of health care reform in 2000. The principle of HIA is to stimulate greater societal interest in developing healthy public policy (HPP) leading to a healthy society.

 

Thailand's HIA movement began by formulating HIA language for inclusion into the National Health Act. To this end, the National Health System Reform Com- mission (NHSRC) assigned the Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI) to facilitate research programs on HPP and HIA development in Thailand. In 2001, HSRI established the "Research and Development Program on Health Impact Assessment System" with the objective to promote academic, social, and political collaborations within a nationwide HIA development network. In 2003, the program was renamed "The Research and Development Program on Healthy Public Policy and Health Impact Assessment System (HPP-HIA Program)". Its main aim was to promote HIA as a tool for HPP in non-health sectors such as agriculture, indus- try, energy, water, transportation, urban and natural resource management.

 

Following administrative restructuring in 2002, the Ministry of Public Health established the Sanitation and Health Impact Assessment Division to develop HIA systems. Operating under the Department of Health, this new agency's charge was to support implementation of the Public Health Act especially amongst local government to pursue HPP decision making.

 

Over the past 5 years, all sectors of Thai society have applied HIA to a variety of projects and policies. These actions led to the National Economic and Social Advisory Council (NESAC) submitting specific HIA recommendations to the Cabinet in January 2005. The 31 May 2005 Cabinet Resolution acknowledged these recommendations and directed the Ministry of Public Health to implement them.

 

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