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FINAL ACTIVITY REPORT
Margit OHR
Project implementation began in March 2002. However, before then I was fortunate to identify a Hungarian Policy Mentor, Dr Mihály Kökény - by November 2001. At that time, Dr Kökény was Chairman of the Hungarian Parliamentary Health and Social Affairs Committee. Since, the 2002 General Election in Hungary, he has been appointed as Political Secretary to the new Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs. His contact address is: Dr. Mihály Kökény At the same time, I began exploring, with OSI, possibilities for an international mentor experienced in Health Impact Assessment. The search and discussion about possible mentors took place between December 2001 and February 2002. Eventually, OSI approached Dr. Martin Birley of IMPACT (International Health IMPACT Assessment Consortium). Once Dr. Birley had read my proposal he agreed to become my mentor. He has extensive international expertise and again, I felt privileged that he agreed to be my mentor. His contact address is: Dr. Martin Birley In March I attended the first IPF seminar in Budapest. At the same time, I received the first budget instalment from IPF and organised appropriate infrastructure for work: lap-top computer, internet connection, mobile phone contract. My first meeting with Martin Birley was on 27 of March 2002 in Liverpool. I also met
After the meeting I followed up with Dr. András Jávor, Head of the Hungarian Public Health Programme who also attended the meeting. Among other things we discussed the opportunities for institutionalizing HIA in Hungary. I exchanged information about the London meeting with my Hungarian mentor as well and we agreed to meet after the General Election. Following the meeting I exchanged several e-mails with Ceri Breeze, Public Health Strategy Division, Welsh Assembly Government about a Pan European Survey on Health Impact Assessment. I was then asked by Dr Kökény to submit a holding response to the survey due to the transition in Government then taking place in Hungary. At the end of April, I visited the UK again to take part in a five day training course on Health Impact Assessment - 29 April to 3 May - in Liverpool. During this course I made contact with other UK and European participants who are developing HIA work. In writing up my Interim Research and Policy Paper,
several sources have been used:
I participated in the 22nd conference of the International Association of Impact Assessment between 17 and 23 of June, in The Hague, Netherlands. I established cooperation with the EC countries (UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany). They are involved with the EU in creating an integrated approach to impact assessment. I met with the Head and colleagues of the Intersectoral Policy Office in Netherlands and discussed the possibility of visiting them in Utrecht after having a clear strategic plan on HIA within the Hungarian Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs. I also participated in a WHO workshop. We were looking at the possibility of working together and the role of WHO. I also planned to work together with Hungarian colleagues from the Ministry of Environment and the Central European University after the conference. I received the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the involvement of third parties in the “Policy Health Impact Assessment for the European Union” Project (SANCO), and I communicated my acceptance of the ToR on 14 of July 2002. For the request of the research group I wrote a briefing paper on the HIA situation in Hungary as it stood as of August 15 2002. I visited the School of Public Health in Debrecen and I met with Prof. Róza Ádány and Dr. Karolina Kósa. The purpose of the visit was to inform my colleague in the School about my OSI research and explore the possibilities of collaborating with them on HIA. During summer I had a number of visits to the new Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs to meet and collaborate with the head of the Public Health Division about the institutionalisation of Policy HIA within our system. It was intended that this institutionalisation of HIA would be part of wider strategy development and institutional change identified in theWorkplan of the Ministry. I also made some preparation for my interviews with the key stakeholders. SEPTEMBER I contributed to the development of the new WHO gateway for Health Impact Assessments website. I started my interviews with key stakeholders and I collected documents about Public Health Policy. I started to identify, collect and analyse information for a situational analysis of the existing situation in Hungary and how it might influence the use of HIA. Factors affecting the use of HIA in Hungary are summarised in a table in my Final Research Paper. I then re-analysed factors identified in a study for the Welsh Assembly Government in order to develop a comparison of the situations affecting use of HIA in Hungary and Wales (UK). I participated in a survey by the new Policy Consultancy Unit set up at CEU and I expressed my interest to contribute to the work of this Unit in the fields of Healthy Public Policy, Public Health and Health Promotion Policy. I had have interviews with regards to the opportunities and barriers to the use of HIA in Hungary:
OCTOBER Stakeholder interviews continued with two colleagues at the Public Health Department of the Semmelweis University of Medicine. My international mentor and I had discussions about the following:
I had also been asked to contribute to the development of the Capacity Building sub-component of the Health of the Decade National Public Health Programme as a Steering Committee member. I participated in the 13th International Policy Fellows Seminar at 21 – 30 October 2002.I also participated on the II. Health Statistics Forum which was organised by the Health Monitoring Department of the National Centre for Epidemiology. I had a presentation about the EU Public Health Strategy at a meeting of the Health Policy Independent Network in Hungary. NOVEMBER I up dated my web site with the summary CV of my international mentor. I scheduled new interviews with expert in health promotion in Hungary and sub-project director of the Health of the Decade National Public Health Programme. I registered for the European Public Health Association Conference, Dresden, Germany, 28-30 November 2002. I had been asked to organise a meeting of the Health Policy Independent Network for the Public Debate of the Health of the Decade National Public Health Programme, and write recommendations for the Ministry of Health Social and Family Affairs. I had a meeting with the head of the Public Health Division at the Ministry of Health Social Family Affairs about the institutionalisation of HIA in Hungary. I have contacts from Canada, Slovakia supporting the institutionalisation process in Hungary. I contacted a lawyer colleague to discuss the legislation process relating to use of HIA. I had an interview with the National Coordinator of the Hungarian Healthy City Network about the introduction of HIA into the Policy Process at national governmental level. I participated at the 10th Annual European Public Health Association Meeting 2002 in Dresden 28 – 30 November: “Bridging the gap between research and policy in Public Health. Information, Promotion and Training”, during this:
I met with colleagues from the Ministry of Environment and I had an interview with them about their experience with Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Health Impact Assessment. I had a meeting with the head of the Public Health division of the Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs about my potential role after the Fellowship year was completed. I participated at the national conference of the ‘Papai Pariz’ National Association for Health Education. I had a meeting with the Programme Director of the ‘Johan Bela’ National Public Health Programme about institutional development of a new National Health Promotion Institute. JANUARY I had an expert meeting with the advisor of the Administrative State Secretary about the developmental needs for public health and health development. I analysed my interview data and collected documents for my research paper and wrote the first draft report. FEBRUARY I participated on the 5th National Health Impact Assessment Conference in Birmingham 5-6 February 2003. I made some preparation for my workshop with the Hungarian stakeholders for the formulation of the Policy Paper on Introduction of HIA into government policy making. I had a presentation of my IPF findings in Slovakia 24 February 2003 as part of the preparation for the EU accession. March I delivered my public lecture: Health and EU Accession: some challenges to the use of Health Impact Assessment. I had my workshop with OSI Public Health Fellows. I organised and delivered a major workshop with Hungarian stakeholders to report on my research and then to discuss the policy implications of the research. The findings from this workshop have been incorporated into my final Policy Paper. I wrote up my Final Activity Report, Financial Report,
Research Paper and Policy Paper. I then updated my IPF Webpage.
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