To mark the seventh global One Health Day, WHO is urging countries and partners in the South-East Asia Region and across the world to step up action to address health threats at the human-animal-environment interface, with a focus on adapting and implementing the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH-JPA), launched at the World Health Summit in October 2022.
Globally and in the Region, outbreaks of novel, highly infectious and/or pathogenic agents such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza, Nipah virus and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever continue to occur at the human-animal-environment interface, causing morbidity and mortality, and threatening health security. Ecosystem degradation, food system failures and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pose major health risks, while foodborne disease makes an estimated 150 million people in the Region sick every year, accounting for around 175 000 deaths.
The One Health approach is the most efficient approach to address these and other complex and interlinked challenges, promoting integrated, unified action across multiple sectors, disciplines and communities. In addition to addressing threats to health and ecosystems, the One Health approach highlights the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, action on climate change and sustainable development.
Over the past decade, the Region has achieved sustained progress on implementing the One Health approach, with most countries developing a national One Health coordination mechanism, and several allocating specific funds to support One Health activities. In October this year, Indonesia hosted a key side-event on One Health as part of its Presidency of the G20, which on 1 December will be passed to India, providing a crucial opportunity to intensify global support for One Health activities in low- and middle-income countries, including for full implementation of the OH-JPA.
The OH-JPA was drafted jointly by the One Health Quadripartite, which comprises WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It has six action tracks covering One Health governance, epidemic and pandemic prone zoonoses, endemic neglected zoonoses, food safety, AMR, environment and climate change.
It highlights a range of activities that Quadripartite organizations will carry out together, as well as tools, guidance and support mechanisms that countries, international partners and non-state actors – including civil-society organizations, professional associations, academia and research institutions – can leverage in their efforts to step up and sustain One Health planning and implementation.
The Region has several priorities. First, policy makers should expand national coordination mechanisms to the sub-national level, ensuring local stakeholders are better engaged and empowered, and can identify and respond to local issues in a timely and coordinated manner. Second, One Health priorities should be more effectively mainstreamed into national policy and development frameworks, and a One Health lens applied to all future policy and development agendas.
Third, national One Health action plans that are aligned with the OH-JPA should be developed and costed, enabling One Health stakeholders to mobilize adequate and sustained funding. Fourth, stakeholders and partners at all levels – national, Regional, international and global – must intensify coordination and support, with a focus on facilitating context-specific activities and financing.
The COVID-19 crisis is a stark reminder that business as usual is not an option. To build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic; to prepare for and prevent the next pandemic; and to optimize the health of humans, animals, plants and ecosystems, together we must fully implement the OH-JPA and operationalize the One Health approach. Towards that goal, WHO will continue to provide its full technical and operational support, for a South-East Asia Region that improves health outcomes for humans, animals, plants and the environment.