ZIMBABWE – The Southern African Development Community (SADC), its Members States and key development partners have launched the regional One Health (OH) Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP).

The TCP entitled, “Support in starting up OH interventions minimizing the socio-economic impact of health threats in Southern Africa,” will run from July 2022 – December 2023.

The programme funded to the tune of US$165,000 will be implemented in 15 SADC countries in a bid to prevent the occurrence of the next pandemic through better preparedness and response by applying OH approach.

Furthermore, the TCP will address the current public health challenges by starting up activities, which will enhance the OH approach in SADC Member States.

It will identify the gaps and opportunities for institutionalizing the OH approach through a situation analysis and formulating a larger and well-resourced OH programme.

The virtual launch of the TCP brought together more than 160 key players in the OH fraternity in order to create awareness of project objectives and engage partners and stakeholders at the national and regional levels on the formulation of the OH programme for southern Africa.

The launch discourse acknowledged that success of implementation of OH national strategic plans relied heavily on collaboration at regional, national and local level to achieve proposed objectives.

We believe that the TCP is addressing the challenges we have been experiencing in the absence of a regional OH approach,” said Dr Gaolathe Thobokwe, Livestock Programme Officer, representing the Director of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources of SADC Secretariat. 

SADC Member States have also partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its partners to implement a One Health approach to emerging infectious diseases.

Apart from FAO, the global quadripartite on OH also comprises of the World Health Organization (WHO), World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The specialized agency said the TCP aims to catalyze the formulation of a well-resourced OH Programme, which will tackle the impact of zoonotic diseases, reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance, food safety and to secure biodiversity and critical ecosystems.

During the launch, the agency presented the status of OH implementation in southern African countries and the regional and global OH frameworks and action plans.

The quadripartite members also had the opportunity to present the context and their experiences in implementation of OH in the region.

In addition, the launch facilitated a session on lessons and experience sharing on the implementation of OH interventions in the region.

FAO further said that there was a consensus that coordination and implementation depended on countries embracing OH approach through institutionalization & operationalization.

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