Health impact assessment in Mongolia

2^nd International Conference on Health Informatics and Technology

July 27-29, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Oyunaa Lkhagvasuren

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Health Med Informat

Abstract :

Mongolia is an Asian country, which is located between China and Russia, and lately it has become to known internationally for its enormous resources of minerals. The parliament and government of Mongolia have discussed in great details, with a high interest, the distribution of all these newly discovered wealth, yet very little attention was given to impact of mining activities on health of local community people. The Department of Health - Government Implementing Agency decision makers understood the need to address this topic and have collaborated with the Canadian researchers to develop the national guideline on HIA. The first draft document was developed in 2009 and series of meetings, workshops had resulted in amendments in Environmental Impact Assessment Law and inclusion of the word �??health�?� in EIA. Although many public health professionals consider it as one of the biggest achievements, there are many challenges that environmental and health professionals face to find the Mongolian way of assessing the health impact. Latest training, conducted with the support of WHO, in November 2014 in Ulaanbaatar, reveled the interest of Mongolian professionals to have HE within EIA. Still challenges remain when it comes to questions, such as, who will do HIA, which tools to use, and training institution will be responsible for capacity building. Mongolia is in search for its own way to assess health impact of new projects and facing challenges to find it within current legal environment.