Impact Assessments

Impact assessment is crucial in evaluating the effectiveness of global health programs. It involves measuring the extent to which the program has achieved its intended outcomes and the overall impact on the health of the population. For instance, in the mosquito net distribution program, impact assessment would involve determining whether the distribution led to a significant decrease in malaria cases and related mortality rates.

Current Global Health Impact Assessment Practice

HIA practice has matured, grown, and diversified since the establishment of the approach more than two decades ago. For sustaining and further expanding the observed upward trend in HIA use globally, efforts are needed to address the main barriers in HIA use, namely (i) the limited technical expertise and capacity for conducting HIA; (ii) the lack of policies and legal frameworks that regulate the use of HIA or health in other forms of impact assessment; and (iii) the inadequate knowledge about HIA by decision-makers and public health specialists. The establishment of new national and international HIA teaching and training offerings seems an obvious strategy to pursue, as it addresses several of the main barriers identified, especially if courses are designed to attract participants with different disciplinary backgrounds and from different sectors. The WHO headquarters in Geneva can play an essential role in providing methodological leadership along with creating political interest in HIA, by reinforcing HIA awareness and capacity at the level of the Ministries of Health. This holds particularly true when considering that the WHO is the most important institution when it comes to orienting HIA practitioners at the global level, as demonstrated by this survey. Furthermore, IAIA is able to play a leading role in identifying good practice and in meeting the need for training and guidance, as a global network of impact assessment practitioners across different topics relating to the environment, society and health. Other networks are important in this also, for example, the European Public Health Association, the International Union for Health Promotion and Education and the Society for the Practitioners of Health Impact Assessment. Importantly, all existing and future HIA capacity building efforts and new HIA guidance documents must build on the growing recognition of the role HIA can play in operationalising the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and planetary health as a new game-changing paradigm.