Established in 2005 at the Australian Health Policy Institute (now Menzies Centre for Health Policy) the OxHA Asia-Pacific Centre is led by Associate Professor Ruth Colagiuri with assistance from Renee Slade and Maria Gomez. Its role is to work closely with the global body to replicate OxHA strategy in the Asia-Pacific region by engaging with governments, academic institutions, public health practitioners, lawyers, corporations, health and related NGOs, activists, urban designers, architects and planners and the food industry to raise awareness and encourage action to facilitate the health of people and the planet.

This entails:

• collecting and synthesising evidence in support of the OxHA cause;
• making representation to government, industry, employers and private and public sector agencies and institutions to act to improve the health environment;
• conducting Oxford Dialogue meetings on emerging ‘hot’ topics;
• identifying and communicating innovative ideas and solutions; and
• developing discussion documents on topical issues.

Specifically, the remit of the OxHA Asia-Pacific Centre includes:

• Building and maintaining the OxHA Asia-Pacific Network
• Implementing the Sydney Resolution
• Co-hosting the OxHA 2008 Sydney Summit
• Leading the Law + Health Workstream
• Engaging with industry
• Co-hosting seminars
• Making submissions on topical issues
• Developing thought provoking publications