Health in All Policies
A Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach emphasizes that public policies and decisions made concerning policy areas other than health (e.g. transport, agriculture, education, employment etc.) have the most impact on citizens’ health, on health determinants and on the capacity of health systems to respond to health needs.
A HiAP approach seeks to:
- integrate health considerations into policies concerning sectors other than health
- provide information and evidence from a health policy perspective at the level of governance where policies are shaped
- ensure all sectors and levels of government are more accountable for policy decisions affecting health and health systems
- improve the mechanisms and tools for taking account of health implications
- generate and facilitate intersectoral action for health and solutions for improved health impacts
- analyze how policies and interventions are linked to impacts on health determinants, risk/protective factors, health outcomes and on health systems, as well as the distribution of these effects across various population groups
- inform the policy-makers working in and across all sectors, politicians and the public about how policy decisions affect health and health systems, including the distribution of health and equity in health systems
