A One Health Handbook has been published in the Handbook of Global Health to support countries implementing the One Health approach. A One Health framework is also being piloted by research teams in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
One Health is a multisectoral, transdisciplinary approach that recognizes the interconnection between the health of people, animals and plants and their shared environment. The approach ensures collaboration and coordination among all relevant sectors and stakeholders to achieve better health outcomes.
The implementation of this approach has become even more urgent and critical with the emergence of COVID-19 and the re-emergence of Ebola and other zoonotic and vector-borne disease threats. With this project, TDR is building on the outputs of an earlier research initiative on vector-borne diseases and climate change as the basis for operationalizing One Health.
Earlier this year, a document called One Health Handbook was made available on the TDR One Health web-based platform, along with key supporting materials, providing the scholarly and evidence-based background on One Health. This document was subsequently published as a chapter in the Springer/WHO Handbook of Global Health, making it widely available across WHO and other collaborating agencies, organizations (FAO, OIE, UNEP, among others), and other institutions for their One Health programmes.
An interactive virtual curriculum on One Health is also being developed to build on and extend the fundamentals section of the web-based platform. ‘Operationalizing One Health as a Transdisciplinary ecosystem approach: Linking health, environment and communities’ is a coordinated effort by TDR in collaboration with Global Health International Group (GHGI) and researchers from Tanzania, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa. This training course is also one of the proposed WHO Technical Products on norms and standards on data and research for 2022-23 and is a collaboration between TDR and WHO’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases.
A framework for operationalizing One Health is also currently being piloted by research teams in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Please visit the TDR website for details on each of the research projects below:
Project 1. From an Ecohealth research project to operationalizing One Health approach in West Africa (Côte d’Ivoire and Mauritania)
Principal Investigator: Dr Brama Kone, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS)
Project 2. Operationalizing One Health Initiative for Malaria and Rift Valley Fever Project in Kenya
Principal Investigator: Professor Benson B.A. Estambale, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology
Project 3. One Health Operationalization in the United Republic of Tanzania
Principal Investigator: Professor Paul S. Gwakisa, Sokoine University of Agriculture
Project 4. Operationalizing One Health in Ingwavuma Community: Developing Transdisciplinary Methodology (South Africa)
Principal Investigator: Professor Moses J. Chimbari, University of Kwazulu-Natal
For more information, please contact Dr Bernadette Ramirez.