Health Impact Assessment and policy development: The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland - Hardcover

O'Mullane, Monica

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719091934 ISBN 13: 9780719091933

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2015

Synopsis

It is an accepted convention that non-health sector policies and strategies impact on population health. An instrument and approach, Health Impact Assessment (HIA), seeks to assess the health impacts of projects, programmes and policies in a systematic way. The ultimate goal of HIA is to inform public policy processes of these impacts.

This book provides for the first time an analysis of how and why HIAs informed local policy development in both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. An original theoretical framework was used as the analytical lens for this exploration, drawing from the fields of political and social sciences, and public health. The HIA projects were conducted on traffic and transport, Traveller accommodation, urban redevelopment and air quality.

This conceptually-grounded guide draws from the disciplines of the political and social sciences and public health, and will appeal to academics, students and practitioners in these fields as well as policy-makers and planners at local and national government levels.

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About this title

About the Author

Monica O’Mullane is Lecturer in Public Health at Trnava University (Trnavská Univerzita), Slovakia

From the Back Cover

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is an approach that seeks to assess the impact on population health of projects, programmes and policies. It is practiced in most regions of the globe, including the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where HIAs have been endorsed at the national level in both jurisdictions since the early 2000s, and have informed policy-making in direct and indirect ways.

This book provides the first analysis of how HIA cases have influenced local policy development throughout the island of Ireland using a unique conceptual lens drawing from the disciplines of the political, social and public health sciences. It reviews the literature on HIA and its conceptual roots, and sets it within the context of the health and local government systems, along with the reform processes both countries have been undergoing. The impact of these reform programmes on the development of intersectoral action for health, and on the progress of HIA in particular, is also explored within the text.

The book explores how HIA knowledge and evidence was used, or not used, in the development of local policies, based on original research involving a qualitative longitudinal study of four HIA projects conducted on traffic and transport, Traveller accommodation, urban redevelopment and air quality.

This conceptually grounded guide will appeal to academics, students and practitioners in the fields of political, social and public health science, as well as policy-makers and planners at local and national government levels.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719091934
• ISBN 13: 9780719091933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208