Strengthening the implementation of health impact assessment in Latvia

ABSTRACT

Health impact assessment (HIA) is a means of assessing the health impacts of policies, plans and projects in diverse economic, social, and environmental sectors using quantitative, qualitative and participatory techniques. The recent Latvian strategy for protecting and promoting public health provides an important legal and policy entry point for the strategic goal of health in all policies and the more operational objective of strengthening HIA implementation at the national and local levels. This could be achieved by enabling the health sector to take leadership for HIA in Latvia. For instance, the Ministry of Health or National Health Service could establish a national HIA support unit.