Health in All Policies

Where we live, work, learn, and play has consequences for our health and wellbeing. The better the conditions, the healthier and longer we can live. We all deserve to have the opportunity to live healthy lives. Health in All Policies is an approach that encourages decision makers to consider how their actions shape health and wellbeing.

Policies and plans shape our communities and affect our health

Our neighbourhoods and communities can be designed and shaped so that they promote and protect health. Healthy places and healthy communities help create healthy people. However, this does not happen by default.

The places where we live are affected by local and national plans and policies. Health in All Policies is about shaping plans and policies to ensure that the health impacts on our communities are considered in decision making. This approach is about working together to reach shared goals, boost health and wellbeing and prevent harmful health effects, especially for people most at risk.

The most common diseases in Aotearoa New Zealand are largely preventable. The biggest impact on our health over a lifetime is not from the healthcare services available to us. Our health is heavily influenced by the social, economic, and built environments we live in — often called the wider determinants of health. By tackling root causes and strengthening the wider determinants, we can make it easier for people to become and stay healthy.

Health in All Policies focuses on building strong partnerships and collaboration between health, local government, central government agencies, and iwi, hapū and communities to address the factors outside the health system that create disease. It works best when a combination of elements is in place:

development of strong and sound partnerships based on co-design, co-delivery and co-benefits
good governance
dedicated capacity and resources
the use of evidence and evaluation.

National Public Health Service is exploring options and approaches with local government for working within a Health in All Policies framework. We have a strong focus on collaboration and having early input into policy development. Health in All Policies advisors aim to support environments that promote health in all of our communities, so we can all enjoy good health and wellbeing.

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Health in All Policies is an international approach

Health in All Policies is an internationally recognised and widely used approach that builds on a long history of collaborative approaches to build healthy public policy. It has been used across Aotearoa New Zealand but is most firmly established in Canterbury | Waitaha.

National Public Health Service's approach to Health in All Policies is guided by the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022, and the Government Policy Statement on Health which support working together across sectors to address the wider determinants of health.

Internationally, the concept of Health in All Policies has been refined in a series of internationally developed statements.

Adelaide statement on health in all policies: moving towards a shared governance for health and well-being – World Health Organization (external link)

Health in all policies: Helsinki statement. Framework for country action – World Health Organization (external link)

Adelaide Statement II on Health in All Policies – World Health Organization (external link)