24
Jan

One Health (OH) is a cross-cutting, systemic, and holistic approach to health based on evidence that human and animal health are interdependent, and both connected to and reliant on the health of the environment, including the ecosystems, in which they live[1]. Health threats at the human-animal-environment interface can thus be effectively addressed only with a common understanding of the ecological and health challenges between, and collaboration across all relevant disciplines, sectors, and stakeholders, including those dealing with environmental matters. 

On 17 March 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the Quadripartite (QPT) that enables cooperation among the four organizations.

The integration of UNEP in OH Quadripartite (QPT) and the renewed focus on the crucial role of a healthy environment and healthy ecosystems for OH offer key opportunities and challenges to overcome discipline and sectorial boundaries. It enlarges and strengthens the scope of action. It paves a strong foundation for enabling OH actors to speak with one voice and have a stronger impact on policy decision-making and implementation. It also implies thinking of, elaborating, and applying:

• new ways of multi-sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships on the ground between OH actors, with a collaboration currently mostly limited to medical and veterinary professionals . These must be expanded to include greater engagement of stakeholders with expertise in the environmental determinants of health), and
• new implementation mechanisms in current and future activities, especially at the country level.

The QPT has developed a OH Joint Plan of Action (OH JPA) (2022-2026), which works as an operational framework to achieve national targets and priorities for OH interventions. With its recent finalization, the QPT is now at the stage to translate the global strategy into a concrete implementation framework that will guide all stakeholders to implement the OH JPA in a coordinated and systematic way. Particularly, Action Track six (AT6) of the OH JPA focuses on mainstreaming the health of the environment and ecosystems into the OH approach. 

[1] This refers to the expanded definition of One Health developed by the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) and endorsed by the QPT organizations.