FHI 360 was pleased to participate in the recent Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) workshop held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire that brought together stakeholders from human, animal, and environmental health sectors to strengthen and operationalize regional One Health coordination and strategy. We believe these collaborations to build a common One Health approach are essential to preventing and managing emerging infectious diseases. The material below summarizes the workshop objectives and commitments from stakeholders.
One Health: ECOWAS and partners organize regional workshop to foster networking and trust-building between human, animal, and environmental health sectors.
31.10.2022 – Abidjan – As part of its plan to institutionalize the ‘One Health (OH)’ approach in the ECOWAS region, the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCSDC) – OH Secretariat, in collaboration with the Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC), the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the ECOWAS Directorate of Environment and all supporting technical and financial partners jointly organised a regional three-day technical workshop.
Hosted in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the objective of the conference is to strengthen OH collaboration in the ECOWAS region and consult with Member States on progress made in operationalizing the Regional One Health Coordination Mechanism (R-OHCM) and the development of a regional OH strategy.
The workshop specifically aims to convene an ECOWAS-wide technical meeting on the occasion of the World OH Day (3. November 2022) as a follow-up to the OH meetings held in Dakar 2016, Abuja 2017, Lomé 2019, and Dakar 2022 to foster networking and trust-building between the human, animal, and environmental health systems across the ECOWAS region.
The workshop brought together over 100 OH stakeholders from ECOWAS Member States and institutions, international partners, and non-state actors to consult on progress made in operationalising the R-OHCM and the development of a regional OH strategy.
Some of the key objectives of the conference are to present the R-OHCM governance manual for consultation with Member States, share experience and learning from the national OH strategies implementation and the regional response to Covid-19 and present the draft framework of the regional OH strategy for consultation with Member States. It is envisaged that by the end of the conference, communication, collaboration, and coordination across the sectors by the leads responsible for OH activities will be strengthened, experiences on Member States’ OH coordination mechanism strategies and coordination mechanisms are shared, the R-OHCM governance manual is reviewed and agreed by Member States and the draft framework of the regional OH strategy is reviewed and agreed by Member States.
This event was supported by the GIZ Regional Programme Support to Pandemic Prevention in the ECOWAS Region (RPPP II), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union (EU) and the BMZ.
