The High Council for Public Health (HCSP) plays a key role in guiding public health policies in France. Its mission includes analyzing health determinants and proposing cross-sectoral actions. The HCSP’s effectiveness is heightened by its ability to rely on evidence-based data to evaluate the impact of these determinants and identify action levers. The recognized independence and expertise of its members guarantee the credibility of its recommendations. The HCSP can propose coordinated strategies to build consistent policies aligned with a holistic health vision, emphasizing the medium- and long-term benefits of reducing health inequalities. In this context, during the renewal of its mandate in 2022, the HCSP established a cross-cutting working group across its various specialized committees called "Prevention and Health in All Policies."

This report, based on the work this working group has conducted, presents the findings, reflections, and proposals for integrating into the French agenda a shift in logic grounded in the concepts of health in all policies (HiAP) and primordial prevention, and for equipping public policy with the means to omplement integrated policies conductive to quality of life. It calls for a profound paradigm shift in French public policy, prioritizing the social determinants of health (SDOH) and the reduction of health inequalities, based on the observation that it has become necessary, more sustainable, and fairer to consider health as co-produced by all public policies and as a source of social and economic development, rather than continuing to createsiloed or event competing policies. Drawing on documentary analyses, interviews with key national and foreign stakeholders and in-depth case studies of French intersectoral initiatives, the HCSP was able to clarify the barriers and levers to harmonizing public policies in a way that promotes quality of life and well-being, and offers proposals to support this approach.