Supporting equity in planning and policy [Action guide]

Municipal governments can influence community health outcomes and health equity across multiple policy areas. Improving equity at a community level requires a clear understanding of foundational concepts and approaches, intentional action, and incorporation of these principles into community plans.

Understanding equity in local government

This action guide explores foundational concepts for integrating equity into local government planning and policy. It includes a comparison of equity and equality approaches, and reinforces the economic, social and environmental benefits of an equity approach. Explicit and actionable considerations to support equitable planning and development focus on who benefits, who is excluded, and what to do differently to ensure inclusive approaches.

Actions for equitable community planning

The guide focuses on the practical application of equity as context-specific, asset-focused and policy-driven. Its five-step action plan to support planning and implementation of equity includes case examples for each step. The five steps are:

Develop measurable objectives and targets

Incorporate equity into impact assessments

Map impacts of growth on different populations

Develop dedicated mechanisms to advance equity initiatives

Create guiding principles and questions to guide decision-making

Integrating equity in official community plans

Official community plans guide the development of policy related to many key areas of community life. The action guide shares specific goals and real-life community approaches (based in B.C.) to highlight core considerations in equity-based community planning:

Consider past and present inequities in the community’s vision for an equitable future, including environmental, economic, historical and cultural contexts, and uncover shared community visions and goals.

Include policy goals related to social need, social well-being and social development, including economic and employment participation, service provision, meaningful participation, food and agriculture, and parks and recreation.

Leverage land use policies to support equitable service provision through equitable land use practices, urban design, transportation and housing.

To support ongoing learning and application, the action guide further provides reflective questions, additional readings, resources and a glossary of terms.

Use this resource to

Facilitate discussion on integrating equity in community plans

Identify areas of collaboration between public health and municipal governments to advance health equity at a community level

Develop communication messages about intersectoral approaches to health equity for working with partners and other sectors

Alignment with NCCDH work

The fourth season of the NCCDH’s podcast, Mind the Disruption, explores the connections between the natural and built environment and health and well-being. The recommendations in this action guide are featured in the fourth episode, “Disrupting for healthy built environments.”

The NCCDH has developed a variety of resources on the impact of environment on health and health equity, including:

Health equity and the built environment: A curated list

Public Health Speaks: Equity and the built environment

Toward a safe and healthy place to call home

This work supports uptake and integration of the core competencies within categories 3.0 Policy development and analysis and 4.0 Program planning, implementation and evaluation in Core competencies for public health in Canada: Release 2.0.

Related resources

Incorporating equity into community planning: A visual quickstart for local governments

See other resources on using frameworks to guide health equity planning and action:

Health equity frameworks as a tool to support public health action: A rapid review of the literature

Using health equity frameworks to advance health equity in organizational and system contexts: Learnings from the field

Learning from Practice: Implementing health equity frameworks to guide health equity action

Reference

BC Healthy Communities Society. (2020). Supporting equity in planning and policy [Action guide]. https://bchealthycommunities.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/equity_action_guide.pdf