Health Impact Assessment

 

According to the World Health Organization, Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a “combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population”.

 

Health Impact Assessments (HIA) help mining and metals managers and health and safety advisors address the community health impacts of their activities on the communities near their operations and develop a Community Health Management Plan. The intention is to maximise the positive and minimise the negative community health impacts of the operation.  

 

Health Impact Assessments (HIA) are recognized as an essential part of the overall impact assessment process by international stakeholders including; the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, regional development banks and developmental NGOs, most of whom subscribe to the Equator Principles.

 

The Equator Principles are a risk management framework, adopted by financial institutions, for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in projects. The Equator Principles provide a minimum standard for due diligence and support responsible risk decision making. With respect to community health the Equator Principles refer to Performance Standard 4 of the International Finance Corporation.  In turn the International Finance Coporation has a guidance note on Health Impact Assessment, which is used by Healthy Mining when conducting Health Impact Assessments. 81 Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs) in 36 countries have adopted the Equator Principles – these institutions are responsible for over 70 percent of international Project Finance debt in emerging markets.

 

Healthy Mining has undertaken project Health Impact Assessments (HIA) and developed Community Health Management Plans in  Ghana, Mali, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Columbia.  On most of these mines, the Community Health Management Plan and the Occupational Health Management Plan have been combined into a Comprehensive Health Management Plan, implementation of which optimises the use of scarce resources.