ABSTRACT

A “Health in All” approach has been encouraged by India’s National Health Policy to address cross-sectoral health concerns. To illustrate how health concerns can be systematised in food system planning, we pursued a health impact assessment (HIA) of a watershed development (WSD) project in semi-arid Kolar district, India. The planned WSD project included measures for soil and water conservation, improving agricultural productivity, and enhancing livelihoods of landless and poor households. An HIA approach previously employed for an agricultural project in a tropical setting was adapted for the current HIA, to accommodate for (i) the project implementing agency being a non-profit and (ii) the HIA being conducted in-parallel with the baseline socioeconomic assessment . The HIA revealed that the WSD project might result in a range of positive (e.g. nutrition, sanitation and water quality) and negative health impacts (e.g. vector-borne diseases, pesticide exposure, drowning and zoonosis). HIA of these projects holds promise to influence health in remote drought-prone areas and build-up HIA capacity through application in non-controversial project environments.

抽象的

印度的《国家卫生政策》鼓励采取“全民健康”的方式来解决跨部门的健康问题。为了说明如何在食品系统规划中将健康问题系统化，我们在印度半干旱的可拉尔地区进行了流域开发（WSD）项目的健康影响评估（HIA）。计划中的水务署项目包括水土保持措施，提高农业生产率以及改善无地和贫困家庭的生计。以前在热带环境中的农业项目中采用的HIA方法已适应当前的HIA，以适应（i）非盈利的项目执行机构和（ii）与基准社会经济并行进行的HIA评估 。HIA透露，水务署的项目可能会带来一系列积极的影响（例如，营养，卫生和水质）和负面健康影响（例如媒介传播疾病，农药暴露，溺水和人畜共患病）。这些项目的HIA有望通过在无争议的项目环境中应用而影响偏远干旱地区的健康并增强HIA能力。