Ilona Kickbusch


"Health in all Policies (HiaP) is an innovative policy strategy that responds to the critical role that health plays in the economies and social life of 21st century societies. It introduces better health (improved population health outcomes) and closing the health gap as a shared goal across all parts of government and addresses complex health challenges through an integrated policy response across portfolio boundaries."

Health in all Policies

Ilona Kickbusch has been active in the field of Health in All Policies since the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 which called for Healthy Public Policy. She was the initiator of the "settings for health" projects such as Healthy Cities, which aimed to put health on the political agenda. She was involved in many of the WHO HiAP initiatives - including the HiAP Conference in Helsinki Finland in 2013, more.

Ilona Kickbusch has published extensively on Health in All Policies in both German and English.

Her most recent activities in this field have been the involvement in the 10th Global Conference on Health Promotion and the WHO Council on the economics of wellbeing.

At present she is particularly interested in the political determinants of health and has worked on the commercials determinants of health.

WHO Training Manual on Health in All Policies
In March 2015 the WHO Training Manual on Health in All Policies has been published - of which she was the key author. It is widely used throughout the world.

Adelaide Thinker in Residence
The concept of Health in All Policies was first developed by the World Health Organization and was initially referred to as intersectoral action for health. In the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986 it was highlighted as Healthy Public Policy and further developed in the Adelaide recommendations, following a WHO Conference in 1988 in Adelaide Australia.

In the context of the residency of Ilona Kickbusch as Adelaide Thinker in Residence – the South Australian Government embarked on a unique Health in All Policies process engaging the whole of government across all portfolios. The report of Ilona Kickbusch' work as Adelaide Thinker in residence is available here: Healthy Societies: Addressing 21st Century Health Challenges. South Australia has actively continued to implement HiAP by adopting a health lens approach and introducing a new public health act. An international meeting together with the WHO in April 2010 resulted in the Adelaide Statement. This statement, all presentations as well as the publications prepared before and after the meeting can be accessed at the Health in All Policies website. The most recent activities can be accessed here.