One healthcare for the whole world, the joint statement of the heads of FAO, UNEP, WHO and WOAH

ROME – Recent global health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, mpox, Ebola outbreaks and the continuing threats of other zoonotic diseases, as well as food security, antimicrobial resistance challenges, not to mention ecosystem degradation and climate change, clearly demonstrate the need for resilient health systems and accelerated global action, at least to reduce the enormous inequalities that are dramatically increasing around the world. The concept of One Health therefore alludes to an approach to address these urgent and complex challenges that our society is facing. In their first annual face-to-face meeting, the heads of the four organizations, working around this unique healthcare concept and the resulting actions needed to implement it, issued an unprecedented call for enhanced global interventions.

The exhortations in seven points. The organizations aim to achieve together what no sector can achieve alone, and is made up of as many international agencies: theFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), theWorld Health Organization (WHO) andWorld Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). Together, they underline the need for greater collaboration and greater effort to translate the approach One Health in political actions in all countries, indicating some priority actions:

– 1. Prioritize One Health on the international policy agenda, increase understanding and support the adoption and promotion of enhanced cross-sectoral health governance. The “One Health” approach should notably serve as a guiding principle in global mechanisms; including in the new pandemic tool and the pandemic fund to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response;

– 2. strengthen national One Health policies, strategies and plans, costed and prioritized in line with the One Health Quadripartite Joint Action Plan (OH APP), to promote broader implementation across sectors relevant and at all levels;

– 3. accelerate the implementation of One Health plans, including support for national One Health governance and multi-sector coordination mechanisms, development of situation analyses, stakeholder mapping, priority setting and metrics for monitoring frameworks and One Health assessment;

– 4. Build a cross-sector One Health workforce that has the skills, capabilities and capabilities to prevent, detect, control and respond to health threats in a timely and effective manner by strengthening pre-service and ongoing joint training for human health personnel , animal and environmental;

– 5. strengthen and support the prevention of pandemics and health threats at their source, focusing on activities and locations that increase the risk of zoonotic fallout between animals and humans;

– 6. Encourage and strengthen One Health scientific knowledge and evidence creation and exchange, research and development, technology transfer, and information and data sharing and integration, and facilitate access to new tools and technologies;

– 7. Increase investment and funding of One Health strategies and plans by ensuring large-scale implementation at all levels, including funding for health threat prevention at source.

The document is signed by: QU Dongyu, Director-General of FAO; by Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP; by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO; by Monique Eloit, director general of WOAH.