The 6/94 gap in health impact assessment

Journal Article · Thu May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Environmental Impact Assessment Review

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2007.07.003· OSTI ID:21130746

Utzinger, Juerg ^[1]

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1. Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Swiss Tropical Institute, CH-4002 Basel (Switzerland)

Health impact assessment (HIA), a methodology that aims to facilitate the mitigation of negative and enhancement of positive health effects due to projects, programmes and policies, has been developed over the past 20-30 years. There is an underlying assumption that HIA has become a full fledged critical piece of the impact assessment process with a stature equal to both environmental and social impact assessments. This assumption needs to be supported by evidence however. Within the context of projects in developing country settings, HIA is simply a slogan without a clearly articulated and relevant methodology, offered by academia and having little or no salience in the decision-making process regarding impacts. This harsh assertion is supported by posing a simple question: 'Where in the world have HIAs been carried out?' To answer this question, we systematically searched the peer-reviewed literature and online HIA-specific databases. We identified 237 HIA-related publications, but only 6% of these publications had a focus on the developing world. What emerges is, therefore, a huge disparity, which we coin the 6/94 gap in HIA, even worse than the widely known 10/90 gap in health research (10% of health research funding is utilized for diseases causing 90% of the global burden of disease). Implications of this 6/94 gap in HIA are discussed with pointed emphasis on extractive industries (oil/gas and mining) and water resources development. We conclude that there is a pressing need to institutionalize HIA in the developing world, as a consequence of current predictions of major extractive industry and water resources development, with China's investments in these sectors across Africa being particularly salient.

• OSTI ID: 21130746
• Journal Information: Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Journal Name: Environmental Impact Assessment Review Journal Issue: 4-5 Vol. 28; ISSN 0195-9255; ISSN EIARDK
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
DECISION MAKING
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY
MINING
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PUBLIC HEALTH
SOLAR PROTONS
WATER RESOURCES