Experts from the Eastern Mediterranean Region explore operationalizing One Health
Jordan Daily – As a multisectoral approach, One Health unifies the expertise and resources of human, animal, and environmental health sectors to achieve optimal health outcomes. It has been gaining global prominence as a successful approach to combating health threats shared by humans, animals, plants, and their surrounding environment, including zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change. While it has been implemented in several countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region, One Health has not been fully operationalized. The need has been recognized to do so.
Discussions on expanding the region’s capacity to operationalize One Health took center stage at a regional meeting organized by the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) in Amman, Jordan on March 7 and 8, 2023. The meeting was held to officially launch EMPHNET’s recently published Operational Guide for the Implementation of the One Health Approach in the EMR, which is based on its long experience in promoting and implementing One Health across the region. Attending this meeting were experts representing most countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Yemen, in addition to Mauritania. In attendance were also members of the One Health Curriculum Working Group (OHCWG) which recently developed a One Health Professional Training Program for the Region.
During the first day, the high-level experts delved into the main components of the Regional One Health operational guide to be applied to a typical national plan of action: Governance and the Legal Framework; Coordination, Communication, and Collaboration; Capacity Building; Data Sharing and Exchange; and Risk Communication, Behavior Change Communication, and Community Engagement. The second day of the meeting focused mainly on capacity building in discussions on the One Health Professional Training Program in the Region developed by the OHCWG.
“This meeting was an opportunity to promote discussions for better collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary synergy at country, regional, and global levels. At this meeting, the interaction and discussion added value to regional discussions, and I believe will bring us closer to meeting our mutual goals for One Health,” Dr. Mohannad Al Nsour, Executive Director of EMPHNET.
The WHO Representative for Jordan, Dr. Jamela Al-Raiby, had a similar impression about the importance of the matter.
Important outcomes of the meeting included the development of a sample country One Health operational plan of action that can be adapted to each county’s context, the obtainment of participants’ feedback, input, and comments on the One Health Professional Training Program in the Region, and the formation of a Regional Committee for One Health.
