Promoting Active Public Participation

Abstract

Active and timely public participation is critical to the successful development and implementation of any environmental health initiative, such as the National Environmental Health Action Plans (NEHAPs) being developed in Europe. The Dubrovnik Initiative on Action for Environment and Health Protection in Europe (World Health Organisation 1996b) recognised that ‘There is a need to enhance mechanisms for public participation especially at an early stage in developing NEHAPs, in order to minimise discrepancies between public and institutional or political priorities and perceptions of environmental or health risk and their solutions’. This consultation further acknowledged that ‘A strategy for risk communication/ public information should be planned as an integral part of actions’. The specific issue of public participation was further explored in the WHO Consultation in Michelstadt, Germany on March 3-5, 1997. The discussion and recommendations of this consultation were summarised in the report ‘Strategies for Public Information and Participation in Environmental Health’ (World Health Organisation 1997b).