What is HIA?
Our health is affected by decisions made in areas outside of public health, such as planning, transport, housing and education. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) ensures that health is considered in these and other important decisions. HIA helps policy and decision-makers to understand how a proposed new law, policy, programme or project might affect the health of the community before it is implemented.
HIA is a process used to determine the impact of proposed policies, laws, programmes or plans on the health of communities to ensure they are more inclusive, more equitable, and more sustainable for everyone. The HIA process can be used at national, regional or local level and supports government strategies in Ireland and Northern Ireland to improve population health and reduce health inequalities.
Healthy Ireland and Making Life Better provide policy frameworks for public health in Ireland and Northern Ireland, respectively. These frameworks place a high priority on improving health and tackling the wider determinants of health and set out the importance of a ‘Health in All Policies' approach, HIA, equity and social justice.
