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One Health

One Health “at a glance”    More effective control of global health risks   
International collaboration    Strengthening multi-sectoral collaboration at the national level    Media resources

Strengthening multi-sectoral collaboration at the national level

The OIE envisages and implements the “One Health” concept as a worldwide collaborative approach to understand risks to human, animal and environmental health as a whole.
However a collaboration of this nature cannot be limited to an international plan. It must also be based on harmonised and coordinated systems of health governance which are adapted to the regional and national level.

 

Taking a Multisectoral, One Health Approach: A Tripartite Guide to Addressing Zoonotic Diseases in Countries

Every day we hear about health challenges at the human-animal-environment interface. Zoonotic diseases such as avian influenza, rabies, Ebola, and Rift Valley fever continue to have major impacts on health, livelihoods, and economies. These health threats cannot be effectively addressed by one sector alone. Multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration is needed to tackle them and to reduce their impacts.

As a way to support countries in taking a One Health approach to address zoonotic diseases, the guide: “Taking a Multisectoral, One Health Approach: A Tripartite Guide to Addressing Zoonotic Diseases in Countries” has been jointly developed by the Tripartite organizations (FAO, OIE, and WHO). This Guide, referred to as the Tripartite Zoonotic Guide (TZG) is flexible enough to be used for other health threats at the human-animal-environment interface; for example, food safety and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The TZG provides principles, best practices and options to assist countries in achieving sustainable and functional collaboration at the human-animal-environment interface. Examples and lessons learned from countries experiences are also included.

 

By using the TZG and its associated operational tools (which are currently being developed), countries can build or strengthen their national capacities in:

Options for monitoring and evaluating the impact of these activities are included allowing countries to make improvements in their zoonotic disease frameworks, strategies and policies. Moreover, taking the One Health approach presented in the TZG helps countries to make the best use of limited resources and reduces indirect societal losses, such as impacts on livelihoods of small producers, poor nutrition, and restriction of trade and tourism.

By working together and collaboratively, our global health systems are improved in a sustainable way ensuring an efficient prevention of the global health risks.

Consult the Tripartite Zoonotic Guide (TZG): “Taking a Multisectoral, One Health Approach: A Tripartite Guide to Addressing Zoonotic Diseases in Countries” by clicking on the cover.

Reinforcing national animal health systems

The promotion of the “One Health” concept at the national level is aimed at establishing stronger political support over time to ensure the coordinated prevention of diseases that have a major impact on public health at the human-animal-ecosystems interface.

In fact it is essential to provide human and animal health systems which are well organised and resilient.

In this context, the OIE is committed to supporting the constant improvement of the performance of national Veterinary Services (the PVS Pathway), in particular through good governance, and encourages them to cooperate with other public health stakeholders, since it sees all actions in this field as a global public good.

In addition the OIE offers all its Member Countries an independent evaluation of the level of compliance of its Veterinary Services comply with the OIE’s quality standards. It also provides specific tools to calculate the investments required and to carry out the legislative and technical reforms needed for compliance. The PVS Pathway for the sustainable improvement of Veterinary Services has already benefited more than 140 Member Countries.

For these actions to be effective on a larger scale, the cooperation of all countries is required, since globalisation and its effects mean that health threats cannot be confined to one country’s borders.

However, some countries still lack consultation and cooperation between their public health and animal health sectors. This is why new initiatives, presented below, have been developed to assist countries to set up effective national health systems for both human health and animal health; systems that are well organised and operate according to the principles of good governance, enabling the monitoring of animal health and public health alike.

Stronger cooperation between national human health authorities and animal health authorities

WHO and the OIE have developed tools to assist their Member Countries to implement their respective standards and help them to identify tailored and coordinated strategies to deal with national health risks at the human–animal interface, by:

  • evaluating the capacity of the animal health and human health sectors
  • identifying gaps in the implementation of health standards




Based on the experience acquired from two national pilot workshops, held in Azerbaijan and Thailand, a joint WHO–OIE Guide for national public health and animal health authorities (represented by Veterinary Services) has been produced. It sets out methods for strengthening good governance of health systems throughout the world.


OIE–WHO operational framework for good governance at the human–animal interface: connecting the tools of WHO and the OIE to evaluate national capacities

 


The Guide gives a detailed picture of all the tools available under the WHO Framework for Monitoring International Health Regulations (IHR) and the OIE PVS Pathway, and their use to create pathways and meet the objectives of the “One Health” approach.



All these synergies between animal health and human health specialists, applied at the local, national and worldwide level, will undoubtedly contribute to the simultaneous and continuing improvement of global public health.

National IHR/PVS Workshops
International Health Regulations (IHR) and PVS Pathway Evaluation of Performance
of Veterinary Services


Since the publication of the Operational Framework described above, the OIE and WHO continue to develop a multi-sectoral approach and now organise national IHR/PVS seminars in those Member Countries that want to strengthen collaboration between their human and animal health sectors, to manage priority health threats in the most effective way possible.

These seminars will provide participants from national authorities with countless opportunities to:

  • consult on the results of IHR and PVS evaluations of countries’ capacities and identify ways to make use of these conclusions;
  • improve dialogue, coordination and collaboration between the human and animal health sectors to:
    • identify areas for joint strategic action, enabling a synergistic approach to disease prevention, detection and control;
    • facilitate  identification of possible tools, by gathering together all the different kinds of technical expertise, data, best practice and resources;
  • improve understanding of the respective roles and mandates of stakeholders in different sectors.
  • develop tools to enable mechanisms for multi-sectoral coordination and cooperation to be more easily funded and incorporated into institutions and aligned with national priorities and strategies, with the aid of information shared by international organisations.

 

 

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