Health is central to sustainable development, and thus a cross-cutting issue of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Natural resource extraction projects in Africa have considerable potential to impact on health-related targets of the 2030 agenda. Experience from African countries shows that adverse impacts from resource extraction projects on health tend to prevail.

A health impact assessment (HIA) is a prospective approach to anticipate future direct and indirect health effects of such projects. It identifies appropriate actions to manage those effects aiming to strengthen positive health outcomes and minimize adverse health outcomes. HIA can therefore enable to engage natural resource extraction projects in the work towards the health-related targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

That’s why the ‘Health impact assessment for engaging natural resource extraction projects in sustainable development in producer regions’ (short HIA4SD project) aims to conduct research that informs and facilitates a policy dialogue, and ultimately policy change, for strengthening the application of impact assessment as a regulatory mechanism in Africa.

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