Equity in HIA and Health in All Policies Working Group

Connecting practitioners and resources

Current Activities

The WG will focus on the following activities in 2023-2024:

• Develop an updated customizable tool to help practitioners select the most actionable HiAP strategies and tactics based on local dynamics

• Develop resources for agencies that want to hire HiAP professionals

• Explore case studies of national and international HiAP efforts and tell those stories through SOPHIA newsletters, webinars, and conferences

Objectives

The goal of this working group is to connect practitioners and develop or highlight tools that help practitioners to consider equity in health impact assessment as well as health in all policies. As part of this work, the Working Group will consider climate justice and sustainability, use of artificial intelligence, and HiAP opportunities in rural areas and across the political spectrum.

History and Resources

HIA is commonly used as a tool to implement an existing HIAP framework or as a way to begin a discussion about inserting health and equity into programs, projects, processes and policies. 

This Working Group builds on the successes of the previous HiAP Working Groups (WGs) dating back to 2012. In 2012, the HiAP WG looked at the similarities and differences between HIA and HiAP, and in 2014 the WG developed the HiAP Screening Tool to help practitioners decide between HiAP-like approaches when HIA is not a good fit. This screening tool is being updated and released in early 2024.

The HiAP Implementation Guide was developed by the SOPHIA HiAP working group in 2023 and is based on the previous works by Gase et al. (2013), and the SOPHIA HiAP Screening Guide (2017). 

Check out the numerous HiAP resources on the SOPHIA HiAP Resources webpage.

Contact: coordinator@hiasociety.org