At the October 2022 launch of the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH JPA) at the World Health Summit, the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze reminded the audience that our ecosystems’ foundations are at stake: “It is no secret that our biodiversity is under threat. We need ecosystems for our food security and for our health, for safe drinking water, fertile soils, clean air, and protection of the global climate.”
The One Health approach aims to achieve an equilibrium between the health of humans, animals, and the environment and to prevent threats to global health. The ambitious One Health Joint Action Plan uses cross-disciplinary thinking and recommends preventive actions to strengthen health systems. It was developed by the Quadripartite organizations, namely 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, founded as OIE).
(Image credit: GIZ)
The German government, through the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), is working to mainstream One Health into global policies and practices. It has pledged over €8 million to WHO for the period 2022-2023, including €4 million support for the action plan’s implementation. The atmospheric dinosaur hall of Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde provided the space for the plan launch, co-sponsored by BMZ, GIZ, and the Foundation Healthy Planet-Healthy People.