Finland

HIAP has been strongly linked in Finland with broader community health and disease prevention programmes and measures, most known in the context of the North Karelia project. However, efforts to engage with broader public health and policy measures has historically been a wider part of health policies in particular in the context of the implementation of health for all policies. The European Union's engagement with health in all policies was initiated in the Kuopio Conference during the Finnish Presidency and was further emphasised in the Council Conclusions.

While HiAP is geared towards addressing national policies, a substantial part of other policy areas are defined at regional or global level. This requires the necessity to tackle health in all policies not only at national level, but at the level where decisions are made. Furthermore, different sectors and policies imply different impacts and means to tackle these.

HiAP usually involves implicit or explicit strategic thinking and prioritisation on the basis of evidence and the existence of key health issues, policy developments and potential in other sectors, the existing level of health protection as well as the organisation and financing of national health systems.

HiAP as a horizontal strategy links administration and policy development. That is, HiAP can be both an administrative mechanism for realizing joined-up governance, but also a means of extending the policy debate, by bringing out the social and health impacts of government action. This horizontal strategy is more easily applied at national and international level, through the governance mechanisms of the EU and national strategic planning.