Putting One Health principles into practice!

Convening more than 1.300 experts from 107 countries, the 9^th World One Health Congress (WOHC) in Lisbon, Portugal took place under the patronage of Unesco in early September. Over four days, the Congress featured presentations, panel discussions and workshops on One Health topics such as emerging zoonotic diseases that pass between animals and humans, biosecurity, food systems, antimicrobial resistance, vector-borne diseases, innovative technologies and health, the science-policy interface and more.

Bringing cross-sectoral thinking into the classrooms

“One Health must be embedded in education systems – it must reach classrooms and universities”, Shaofeng Hu, Director of the Division of Ethics, Research & Technology at Unesco, maintained, adding: “Ensuring that the next generation can think across human, animal and environmental health is one of the most important contributions we can make.”

Discussions throughout the Congress emphasised the importance of including traditional knowledge from Indigenous Peoples and local communities. “Prevention works better when the people who face the risk shape the solution themselves”, Elisabeth Betsi Dibongue, Secretary General of the Prezode (Preventing Zoonotic Disease Emergence) initiative, summarised.

Essential for global health resilience

With a Scientific Track and a Scientific Policy Interface Track, the programme celebrated state-of-the-art science, models and best practice for governance and implementation, and included a focus on ensuring that science can reach decision-makers. Throughout the Summit, the importance of a One Health approach for ensuring global health resilience and security was emphasised, with recognition of the need for greater integration of biohealth threats and strengthened biosecurity.

“Unite in Diversity”

Taking place in Europe for the first time since 2015, there was a spotlight on European One Health implementation. European Commission and European Parliament representatives joined the five agencies of the European Union Cross-agency One Health Task Force, to reflect on progress to overcome fragmentation, embed structural cooperation, and “unite in diversity”. “The European Health Union is built on partnership, just like One Health should be. We need to work together because diseases, climate change, and antimicrobial resistance cross borders, so our response has to cross borders too”, Sandra Gallina, Director General for Health and Food Safety at the European Commission, maintained.

Implementing the One Health Joint Plan of Action

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) highlighted a shared focus on implementation, science and investment. An important issue in this regard was the implementation of the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OHJPA) at country level. The Joint Plan of Action, launched in 2022, outlines the commitment of the four organisations to collectively advocate and support the implementation of One Health.R epresentatives from Singapore, Malawi and Uzbekistan shared their experiences, providing practical perspectives on how cross-sectoral coordination can be strengthened and adapted to national contexts. 

Joint Statement and Call to Action launched

The Congress launched a Joint Statement and Call to Action to mobilise the collective voice of the One Health community, with a shared promise to advocate for One Health and a call for decision-makers to:

• meet agreed targets of international conventions for health, sustainability and equity;
• fund One Health research and implement actionable policies through a One Health lens and
• formally recognise that integrating human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health is vital to global health security, and disease prevention resilience.

The Congress closed by celebrating outstanding scientific contributions. Doctor of Veterinary medicine Shauna Thomas earned the Best Oral Presentation award for her research titled “Environmental Drivers of Antimicrobial Resistance in Aquaculture: A Comparative Governance Analysis of Canada and Norway,” and Kimberly Edwards from medical research laboratory HKU-PRP received the Best Poster award for her investigation into the resurgence of zoonotic avian influenza H5N1 viruses in Cambodia.

(GOHC/WHO/sri)

More information:

• Link to Conference website
• Link to Joint Statement and Call to Action
• Link to One Health Joint Plan of Action

Further reading:

Rural 21 issue no 4/2020: "One Health"

Rural 21 issue no 1/2024: Indigenous peoples - why rights and resources matter