Health in All Policies—The Finnish Initiative: Background, Principles, and Current Issues

Many historical developments, such as the Alma Ata Declaration or the Ottawa Charter, have drawn attention to the need for intersectoral work and for considering the health aspects of different policy proposals. In the 1970s, Finland started broad actions to change national diets to reduce the high mortality associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). This and other work in Finland have involved many sectors and policies, resulted in significant public health improvements, and paved the way for the Health in All Policies (HiAP) initiative started during the Finnish European Union (EU) presidency in 2006. The initiative and the principles have encouraged further developments in Finland and have been linked with related developments within the EU and the World Health Organization (WHO).