National Health Assembly

Health Assembly is a process and platform of developing participatory public policy based on wisdom. It seek to bring together three sectors – the government sector the academia sector and the people sector – from health and non health background – to dialogue for healthy public policies and solutions

Evidence support and inclusive participation are incorporate throughout the process starting from agenda setting, resolution drafting, stakeholder and public consultation, resolution adoption, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

In Thailand, there are three types of health assembly, namely the National Health Assembly, Area-based Health Assembly and the issued-based health assembly.

Stipulated in the National Health Act 2007, National Health Assembly (NHA) is one of the most significant social mechanisms to facilitate the evidence-based policy making with great emphasis on inclusive participation. NHA is a year-round policy process, not a one-time event.

Despite learning and adopting from World Health Assembly, the uniqueness of Thailand National Health Assembly lies into inclusive participation from the government, academia, profession and people sector throughout the process.

The National Health Assembly (NHA) was officially convened in 2008. The consensus based resolutions of the NHA are submitted to the National Health Commission and further to the Cabinet. Until 2023, 96 resolutions from 16 assemblies have been implemented, including resolutions on Thailand’s Global Health Strategies antibacterial resistance, on health, illegal advertisement of drugs and health products, daily cycling, waste management, and housing, to name a few. Click here to explore about Thailand National Health Assembly resolutions.

With the variety of agenda items at the NHA, the assembly is now an example of implementing Health in All Policies approach in order to achieve SDGs.