The presentation has discussed two major trends which are (1) the formation of regional inter-state organization such as EU, and (2) a holistic-convergence view of socio-envioronmental- health- framework in developmental policy

1. The Roles of the European Union in
Promoting Sustainable Development
Kan Yuenyong : 6220131004
Nathanan Mitkasem : 6220131001

2. The European Commission’s holistic approach
for sustainability and the SDGs

3. Two Trends
A formation of regional inter-state
organization such as EU
A holistic - convergence view of socio-
environmental- health- framework in
developmental policy

4. The former French Prime Minister Raymond Barre, who
worked as Kojève’s intern, once described him as “an
exceptional negotiator,” and the “eminence grise of
French trade policy,” saying the Russian had “provided
great services during the negotiations for the Rome
Treaty.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-stalinist-behind-the
-treaty-of-rome/
(From Alexandre Kojève’s Hegelianism and the Formation of Europe)
• Kojève saw, beginning in 1945, “that the nation-state had become
relatively inefficient and therefore outdated, that nation-states
would necessarily be supplanted by new political formations, and
that a union of European states was the framework for that empire
in Europe.”
• The European Union surely is not the Latin Empire Kojève had in
mind. But many of its salient features and disputed problems have
already been articulated in Kojève’s pamphlet of 1945: (i) the Union
plays a pivotal role in securing peace on the Continent; (ii) the
whole political project of European integration depends on
economic integration, including a customs union and a common
market, as its conditio sine qua non; (iii) Europe’s relation to its for
mer colonies in Africa will turn out to be one of the great problems
and also great chances of the Union’s more mature stage; (iv)
Europe needs to speak with one voice in order to play a role in a
world of Empires; and (v) we need to find what is called the
‘European Idea’, not only to facilitate further economic integration
but to fulfil the more basic demand of European citizens to have
access to universality and recognition in an era where the nation
state can no longer satisfy this demand

6. https://europeanconstitution.eu/understanding-and-reforming-institutions

7. https://europeanconstitution.eu/understanding-and-reforming-institutions

8. HIA: Background and
Role in Sustainable Developmental Policy
Developments in the environmental movement (McHarg’s Design with Nature, Carson’s Silent Spring),
planning theory (activism, advocacy), and concern for the environment on the part of public and
nongovernmental agencies prompted the pas- sage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969.
This marks the origin of environmental impact assessment (EIA) as an “operational tool to guide planning and
decision making having an impact on the quality of environment and the health and safety of the people” and
as a legal tool to enforce environmental sensitivity in policy decisions (Caldwell 1988). EIA also brought
together a systematic method of bridging planning, systems thinking, and human health.
In practice, EIAs rarely incorporate broad measures of health, or focus too narrowly on exposure to
environmental toxins. In response to this gap, alternative assessment methodologies were developed to more
fully incorporate the examination of social impacts and the health consequences of policy decisions. These
concerns were grounded in social determinants of health, “which recognizes that the factors which determine
health outcomes can be environmental, social, economic and Institutional,” and health equity (Harris-Roxas et
al. 2012). These supplemental methodologies include both HIA and social impact assessment (SIA).
The primary output of HIA is a set of evidence-based recommendations for how to modify the project, policy,
program, plan, or strategy in order to minimize potential adverse health outcomes, maximize beneficial health
effects, and reduce any impacts on health equalities (Mindell et al. 2008).

10. The Family
The three main impact assessment types
currently in wide use are: environmental
impact assessment (EIA); social impact
assessment (SIA), also known as
socioeconomic impact assessment; and HIA.
All follow a similar approach in terms of
methodology: They determine the scope of
the potential impacts to be examined, gather
data to understand the current context,
predict changes to conditions resulting
from the project or policy, and make
recommendations for how to improve the
proposed project or policy in order to
minimize harm and maximize gain.
In practice, the divisions between the content
areas addressed by EIA, SIA, and HIA are
not always clear-cut. There are a number of
areas of overlap— topics that transcend
more than one integrated assessment (IA)
modality because they are relevant for
more than one discipline.

15. The Implementation
of Health Impact Assessment
HIA in Non-EU Countries
 Australia and New Zealand
 Switzerland and Thailand
 The US. and Canada
HIA in Circular Economy:
Case Study from Vietnam
HIA in the European Union
 Estonia
 Lithuania
 Ireland, The Netherlands,
 the United Kingdom and other countries

16. HIA in the European Union
There are many factors that determine the health of individuals and communities. Some of these factors are the
responsibility of the health sector, such as the provision of health care services.
Many of the factors that protect and promote the health of populations are strongly
influenced by the policies and actions of sectors outside of the health sector.
There are causal links between socioeconomic conditions and health outcomes. Income and education
levels as well as occupational class and employment status often measure the relationship between health
and socioeconomic position. This further emphasizes the need for the health sector to work with other
agencies to protect and promote health.

17. HIA in Estonia
The requirement for local authorities
to develop long‐term plans, and to
articulate the associated resources, is
seen by health professionals as a
significant new opportunity to put
health on the agenda. In addition,
there are health promotion
programmes, plans and actions within
counties and municipalities.
Decision‐makers in local authorities
identified that most local authorities
consider that their decisions affect
health.
Implementation of HIA at the municipal level in
Estonia is made difficult by a number of issues.
1. The availability of basic demographic data at
the national, regional and local levels;
2. Limited visibility of health terminology,
including HIA, at the political level of councils;
3. Compared to other forms of impact
assessment, HIA is not required by law;
4. Local authorities are generally reluctant to
undertake new activities or projects,
5. Particularly when there is little political support
and a lack of knowledge about
HIA at a political and practical level.

18. HIA in Lithuania
HIA was introduced and promoted
in Lithuania through a number of
capacity building activities,
adopting a learning by doing
approach through implementation
of HIA at a policy, and the
implementation of legal and
regulatory requirements relating to
HIA.
All these achievements have
increased exposure to, and
implementation of, HIA within a
specific environmental context and
more importantly within a broader,
intersectoral policy context.
Lithuania’s ‘Law on Public Health
Care’, passed by the Parliament
on 16 May 2002, makes specific a
requirement to undertake HIA with
a focus on economic activity. The
law states that the HIA should be
carried out with the same
procedure as EIA and a
methodology will be drafted by the
Ministry of Health.
Further, there is a requirement to
ensure public health safety when
carrying out spatial planning
activities as well as when initiating
or expanding economic activities.

19. HIA in Ireland, The Netherlands,
the United Kingdom and other countries
The Netherlands was one of the first
European countries to strengthen its HIA
frameworks and capacity. HIA was part of
a broader intersectoral policy initiative
established in 1986 with the Netherlands
School of Public Health set up as the
lead HIA agency in 1996.
The importance of government level
support is shown in the example from
Wales. The change in the Welsh
parliamentary system led to the publication
of a set of government priorities in 1999
including health and well‐being as well as
sustainable development, equal
opportunities, and tacking social
disadvantage. Further, the Welsh
government also released a report stating
that HIA is an important tool to protect and
promote public health. A Welsh HIA
Support Unit was established.
In Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, and
Bulgaria follows the international
consensus to integrating HIA within the
context of EIA but there are differences in
their implementation of HIA.

20. HIA in the Non-EU Countries
Australia and New Zealand has focused on three main issues: a) protection of health through assessing
environmental causes of ill health and injuries including toxin exposure; b) assessing the broader determinants of
health impacted on by government policies and programs; and c) to minimize health inequalities arising from
governmental policies and programs.
Environmental assessment frameworks have primarily driven the development of HIA in
Switzerland and Thailand. Switzerland has also moved to a cross‐sectoral approach to HIA built upon
the healthy cities movement. In addition, Thailand’s HIA model includes a strong public consultation
process within HIA as well as clearly articulated requirements for HIA within national health legislation.
Development of HIA in the United States draws upon both health within environmental assessment and
more recently health impacts from the broader determinants of health.

21. International experiences of institutionalizing HIA
A review of HIA in Canada (British Columbia), the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom found that across
these countries there were a number of common experiences when institutionalizing HIA, including:
National‐level legal
frameworks are likely to be an
important tool for
institutionalizing HIA;
A knowledge‐transfer model
between the health and
non‐health sector should be
adopted for effective HIA
practice to ensure that
non‐health sectors have
increased capacity and
capability to produce public
health, such as assessment of
health impacts;
public health agencies should
provide ongoing scientific and
technical support to non‐health
sector agencies to ensure
that the public health
knowledge produced by the
non‐health sector agencies
has scientific and technical
validity;
the values of the HIA process
must be integrated into existing
decision‐making processes
and frameworks.

22. HIA in Circular Economy:
A Case Study from Vietnam
An evidence-based decision support tool for identification and promotion of business models for waste recovery
and reuse. It determined the range and magnitude of potential community health impacts of six solid and liquid
waste recovery and reuse business models in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Agrowaste to
electricity
On-site energy
generation by
sanitation
service
providers
Dry fuel
manufacturing
Wastewater-
duckweed-fish
rearing system
Large-scale
composing for
revenue
generation
Compost
production for
sanitation
service delivery

23. An HIA approach was taken that comprised two main phases.
In the first phase, secondary data were obtained from peer-reviewed
literature relevant to health outcomes that are associated with the
recovery and reuse of solid and liquid waste and underlying determin
ants (i.e. wastewater quality, access to sanitation and personal prote
ctive equipment used by farmers). The information was supplemente
d with primary data collected through a cross-sectional
epidemiological survey.
HIA in Circular Economy:
A Case Study from Vietnam (cont.)

24. In the second phase…
• a semi-quantitative IA was applied, combining the evidence base of the HIA with the detailed description provided for
each of the business models to be tested. In this assessment the likelihood and impact were determined for each
potential health impact.
• The estimated number of people in all population groups affected was multiplied by the scores obtained for likelihood and
impact level for each of the potential health impacts. The obtained magnitude provided a semiquantitative description of
the potential of a business model to have a positive overall impact or negative overall impact on the health of specific
populations groups.
• Finally, the overall impact rating of the potential health impact of each business model was derived from the sum of the m
agnitudes and ranked according to the following categories: (1) major positive impact; (2) moderate positive impact; (3)
minor positive impact; (4) insignificant; (5) minor negative impact; (6) moderate negative impact; and (7) major negative
impact.
HIA in Circular Economy:
A Case Study from Vietnam (cont.)

25. Key results ….
from a public health perspective were that wastewater
reuse for inland fish farming, coupled with on-site water
treatment, has considerable potential for individual and
community level health benefits. One of the business
models investigated (i.e. dry fuel manufacturing with
agrowaste) resulted in net negative health impacts.
Overall conclusions were that the reuse of liquid and
solid waste – as a mean to recover water and nutrients
and to produce energy – has considerable potential for
health benefits if appropriately managed and tailored to
local contexts.
HIA in Circular Economy:
A Case Study from Vietnam (cont.)

26. Conclusion
• HIA supports the decision-making process by identifying the health impacts of policies, programmes, plans
and projects.
• HIA uses a participatory approach and identify possible inequalities in the distribution of potential risks and
adverse effects as well as options to prevent or reduce these impacts and promote positive ones.
• Different stages of an HIA can be linked to the policy/decision-making cycle.
• Not only within the EU member states, HIA can be utilized in other countries to achieve sustainable
development.
• Many countries have legislation in place for environmental assessments. However, there is still a need for
support in the implementation of health assessments through training, guidance, and resources which the
EU plays an important role in facilitating this policy to achieve sustainable development goals.

27. Thank you
Q&A