Health Impact Assessment in the New Zealand Policy Context

Louise Signal, Gillian Durham

Assessing the health impact of policy outside the health sector is a key part of public health policy making. Policy makers use health impact assessment to improve, promote and protect the health of populations.

This paper defines health impact assessment and provides justification for the use of formal health impact assessment tools. The New Zealand policy-making process and the mechanisms currently used within the public sector to assess health impact in New Zealand are discussed. Examples in the public domain from recent public policy making are used to illustrate the discussion. The paper then examines the opportunities that exist for public sector public health policy advisers assessing the health impact of policy in other sectors, given that policy can be a fiercely contested domain, and considers why the generic mechanisms are insufficient to achieve optimal influence. The supports needed for the successful application of formal tools, and the obstacles that exist, are analysed.