The One Health approach aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, ecosystems and the wider environment. It mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems. And it addresses the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, action on climate change, and contributing to sustainable development. Work to tackle the challenges of human, animal and ecosystem health using a more integrated approach has seen significant progress in recent years, further accelerated by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and the need to prevent such events that often emerge at the human-animal-environment interface.
At its annual executive meeting earlier this year, the Tripartite partnership for One Health, bringing together the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), formally became the Quadripartite as they expanded their group to include a fourth body, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to ensure better integration of the environmental dimension into their One Health approach.
In this session the four lead technical focal points of the quadripartite organisations will be formally together for the first time in a public forum to discuss the changing One Health landscape, the inclusion of environmental factors in a One Health approach, and ultimately address the question- One Health: is there a paradigm shift?
Moderator
- Andrea Sylvia Winkler, Center for Global Health, Technical University of Munich and Centre for Global Health, University of Oslo
Speakers
- Lisa Crump, UN Environment Programme UNEP
- Jean Philippe Dop, World Organisation for Animal Health OIE
- Keith Sumption, Food and Agriculture Organization FAO
- Peter Ben Embarek, World Health Organization WHO