Health Impact Assessment in New Zealand

Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment

What is Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment?
When to use Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment
Whānau Ora HIA Training
Case studies
Whānau Ora HIA Tool (opens publication page)

What is Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment?

The Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment tool was published in April 2007 by the Ministry of Health and builds on the Public Health Advisory Committee’s, ‘A Guide to HIA: A Policy Tool for New Zealand’ (2005). It follows the same methodology: Screening, Scoping, Appraisal and Reporting and Evaluation.

It was developed for use by policy makers as a tool for assessing the positive and negative impact of their policies on Māori and to identify ways in which these could be enhanced or adapted. It complements other resources aimed at promoting Māori health including the Health Equity Audit Tool.

It was produced in response to the fact that the Māori population experiences significantly poorer health outcomes than the rest of New Zealand’s population and as a way to support delivery of the Ministry of Health’s strategic vision to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities for Māori outlined in He Korowai Oranga: Māori Health Strategy 2002.

At the heart of the tool is the concept of ‘Whānau ora’, which means, ‘Māori families being supported to achieve their maximum health and well being’. Its overarching aim is to ensure equity in health for Māori.

When to use Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment

This tool should be considered when the policy under development will affect Māori.

Whānau Ora HIA Training

During 2008 the Ministry of Health has developed and funded a Whānau Ora training programme across the country. This has consisting of 10 half day advocacy sessions and 5 two day training courses. These have been well attended with 130 people at the advocacy sessions alone.

View a summary of the Whānau Ora HIA Training Report submitted to the Ministry of Health October 2008 (Word, 40 KB).

The focus now is to build on the training to develop more examples of the tool in use, showing its added value to the decision-making process.

Further training will be publicised through the Unit’s bi-monthly HIA e-news.

Case studies

An evaluation of the Whānau Ora HIA guide: informed via its use on the Ministry of Health’s Criteria for Capital Assistance for Small Drinking-water Supplies (October 2006) (PDF, 255 KB).
The purpose of this evaluation is primarily to assist in the further development of the Whānau Ora HIA tool and secondarily to provide an indication of how effective the Whānau Ora HIA (WO HIA) has been at informing the Drinking water assistance programme: Criteria for Capital Assistance for Small Drinking-water Supplies discussion paper (Ministry of Health, 2006). This requires consideration of how the HIA was undertaken (a process evaluation), consideration of how the HIA may have informed the policy process (impact evaluation) and general commentary on the guidance provided with, and performance of the tool in a real-life situation.

Whānau Ora Health Impact Assessment Rapid Appraisal - Location of the New Plymouth Oral Health Facility (June 2008) (PDF, 1 MB)
A rapid Whānau Ora health impact assessment was carried out to assist Taranaki District Health Board decision makers with where to locate a four chair fixed ‘flagship/hub clinic’ oral health service in the New Plymouth area.

Two further Whānau Ora HIAs are underway. These are funded under Round 2 of Learning by Doing HIA Fund 2008/09.

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Page last updated: 8 September 2009