TY - JOUR T1 - Intersectorality and health: a glossary JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 206 LP - 208 DO - 10.1136/jech-2021-217647 VL - 76 IS - 2 AU - Evelyne de Leeuw Y1 - 2022/02/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/76/2/206.abstract N2 - Intersectorality has become an unchallenged article of faith in health thinking.1 The term ‘intersectoral action’ first formally entered the literature in the 1970s.2 3 It came about when a technical advisory group at WHO contemplated the challenges in sanitation. The technical advisors acknowledged that traditional infectious disease and public health personnel needed to connect with engineering and water management specialists, and that each of these came from a particular disciplinary and government background. Joint work through intersectoral action was deemed critical for the success of sanitation.The term soon entered more policy focused and political realms. Following the Declaration of Alma Ata4 ‘intersectoral action’ was not merely a technical approach, but became a statement of principle. Primary health would only reach its full effectiveness potential, ‘Alma Ata’ declared, when many sectors were engaged in it.2 5 Variations on the terminology started to proliferate. Working across sectors was variously deemed intersectoral action, policy, collaboration and cooperation. The term multisectoral also entered the health vernacular—the suggestion here is that a group of sectors pursues a similar goal, rather than necessarily working together to achieve a particular goal. However, recent discourse proposes that the term ‘multisectoral action for health’ includes all actor and sector configurations that include non-health sectors to—deliberately or as a collateral—potentially improve health.6 The proliferation of intersectoral terminology coincided with similar developments in policy development and administrative and political science scholarship. Partly sponsored by global think tanks such as the World Bank and the international aid industry there was a call for, variously, ‘Whole of Government’ (WoG), ‘Joined-up Government’ (JUG) and horizontal, integrated or coordinated7 policy making.In recent years, these streams of consciousness seem to have coalesced in calls for Health in All Policies (HiAP). Several reviews8 and glossaries9 10 have … ER -