Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, MD, PhD. Director General, Health Environment Management Agency - Ministry of Health

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1 Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, MD, PhD. Director General, Health Environment Management Agency - Ministry of Health

2 LEGAL BASIS OF HIA Before year 2015: The Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases issued in 2007 regulates: All projects on construction of industrial area, urban area, residential parks, healthcare facilities of infectious diseases can be built only after having the HIA evaluation.

3 From 1/1/2015: LEGAL BASIS OF HIA The Law on Environment protection in 2014 (take action in 1/1/2015) define the content of EIA report in which the public health is included in many actions in Article 22, such as: - Assess and predict the impact of waste sources and the project s impact on the environment and the public health; - Plan the project s risk management concerning the environment and the public health; - Solutions to reduce the impact of the project to the environment and the public health.

4 LEGAL BASIS OF HIA Decree No. 27/2015/TT-BTNMT on strategic environmental assessment, environmental impact assessment, and environmental protection commitments: Annex 2.3 on the Structure of EIA report cited: The most important impact need to be assessed and predicted conclude: impacts on natural environment, on biodiversity, on public health and climate change. 4

5 CHALLENGES AND EFFORTS Challenge 1: HIA capacity and experience of staff at all levels are still limited Solutions: - Strengthening capacity for management staff on appraisal of HIA. - Exchanging and learning experiences from other countries. - Further promoting interdisciplinary collaboration between health and environmental sector in order to integrating HIA into policies/programs of the environment such as NEHAP, EIA. - Developing case studies of HIA in various fields. - Organizing training courses on HIA for medical universities, environmental faculty of other universities. 5

6 CHALLENGES AND EFFORTS Challenge 1: HIA capacity and experience of staff at all levels are still limited Solutions (cont): -Organizing multi-sectoral training courses on HIA: In 2016, VIHEMA will participate in a Training of Trainers Course on Health Impact Assessment organized by the World Bank in association with ADB and AITCV for different sectors (Health and Environmental decision makers, institutional and consultants, development partners) 6

7 CHALLENGES AND EFFORTS Challenge 2: Lack of technical guidelines on HIA Solutions: VIHEMA is developing technical guidelines on HIA, which is integrated into EIA report. Challenge 3: Lack of essential funds for HIA activities Solutions: - Mobilizing financial resources from government, agencies and international organizations such as ADB, WB and và WHO in supporting the implementation of HIA for development projects. 7

8 ACTION PLAN OF VIETNAM To develop technical guidelines to implement HIA that is integrated in EIA in Vietnam Vietnamese legal documents related to HIA will be translated into English; Local experts will be hired to develop the technical guidelines on HIA that is integrated into EIA; The draft will be sent to ADB experts on HIA for their comments; Workshops will be organized for gathering comments to finalize the draft guidelines. To strengthen capacity of HIA trainers The current training materials for TOT courses on HIA will be revised and updated, including a version for university lecturers and another version for other trainers. TOT courses on HIA will be organized. 8

9 ACTION PLAN OF VIETNAM To create a network of public health institutes and medical universities offering HIA courses The book HIA principles and practices published in 2011 by Martin Birley will be translated into Vietnamese and delivered; Local experts will be hired to develop a draft curriculums of HIA; The draft will be sent to ADB experts on HIA for their comments;. Workshops will be organized for gathering comments to finalize the curriculums; Workshops on introducing HIA curriculums for public health institutes and/or medical universities will be organized; Study tours to several developed countries that have advanced in HIA. 9

10 ACTION PLAN OF VIETNAM To conduct a number of pilot HIA - EIA reports in different development projects. Three development projects will be selected to conduct HIA - EIA. Workshops will be organized to share the HIA - EIA reports as well as to raise awareness on HIA role for development in Vietnam. 10

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