WHO, UNEP, Others Launch ‘One Health’ Action Plan To Tackle Global Health Threats

The quartet of 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) have jointly launched ‘One Health Joint Plan of Action’ to address global health threats.

This plan aims to integrate systems and capacity that will collectively prevent, predict, detect, and respond to health threats to humans, animals, plants, and the environment across the world while contributing to sustainable development.

The One Health Joint Plan of Action, developed through a participatory process, provides a set of activities that aim to strengthen collaboration, communication, capacity building, and coordination equally across all sectors responsible for addressing health concerns at the human-animal-plant-environment interface.

The five-year plan (2022-2026) focuses on supporting and expanding capacities in six areas: One Health capacities for health systems, emerging and re-emerging zoonotic epidemics, endemic zoonotic, neglected tropical and vector-borne diseases, food safety risks, antimicrobial resistance, and the environment.

‘One Health’ is the main approach for addressing the complex health challenges facing society, such as ecosystem degradation, food system failures, infectious diseases, and antimicrobial resistance.

“Using a One Health lens that brings all relevant sectors together is critical to tackling global health threats, like monkeypox, COVID-19, and Ebola.” WOAH Director General Dr. Monique Eloit highlights the need for enhanced disease prevention capacity in all sectors. “It all starts with ensuring the health of animals. Animal health is our health, it is everyone’s health.”

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu adds, “One Health should start with proper land management and stopping deforestation, which will help people and their animals in the surrounding environment. We need all sectors working closely together to identify and implement adaptation and mitigation measures.”

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen says that “Everyone has the right to a clean and healthy environment – the foundation of all life on Earth. The current pandemic unequivocally demonstrates that the degradation of nature is driving up health risks across the board.” Efforts by just one sector or specialty cannot prevent or eliminate infectious diseases and other complex threats to One Health. She continued: “Vulnerable populations of all species, including the poorest and marginalized humans, bear the heaviest costs. The Joint Plan of Action will drive down health risks through an integrated approach to the human, animal, and environmental health.”

“It’s clear that a One Health approach must be central to our shared work to strengthen the world’s defenses against epidemics and pandemics such as COVID-19. That’s why One Health is one of the guiding principles of the new international agreement for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, which our Member States are now negotiating.” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Building on existing structures and agreements, mechanisms for coordinated financing are under development to support the plan’s implementation. The bodies will join forces to leverage the needed resources in support of the common approach to address critical health threats and promote the health of people, animals, plants, and the environment.