Event highlights
19 August 2024
“Unified health sector cooperation is very important,” expressed Dr Nadir Zeynalov, Deputy Minister of Health of Azerbaijan, in his opening remarks.
Mr Sarvan Jafarov, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Azerbaijan, added, “We must hold regular discussions and implement agreed decisions. One Health’s application can help strengthen health security within states as well as between states. It can contribute to the prediction of common disease threats, detection of diseases, and support for response measures. Various sectors must combine their efforts.”
The future of One Health in Azerbaijan: policy, practice and education
During the 1-day symposium, participants explored the history, utility and benefits of One Health, and its relevance to preventing and preparing for the next pandemic.
“It is not a matter of if but when the next pandemic will hit,” said Dr Hande Harmanci, WHO Representative in Azerbaijan. In her address, Dr Harmanci enumerated past pandemics that changed the world, highlighting the fact that biodiversity loss is the biggest environmental driver of infectious disease outbreaks.
The symposium concluded with a strong ambition to advance the operationalization of One Health in Azerbaijan by setting up appropriate coordination mechanisms and exploring how to build joint surveillance, monitoring and capacity, including infrastructure and human resources.
Participants committed to creating a One Health working group to define a list of priorities to be addressed.
A call to action
Participants recognized the critical importance of the One Health approach in addressing challenges at the intersection of human, animal and environmental health. Acknowledging the much-needed propulsive force created globally by the establishment of the Quadripartite One Health Collaboration, and the urgent need for a paradigm shift to sustain healthy humans, animals and the planet, participants urged all stakeholders to take the following actions.
- Leverage Azerbaijan’s leadership at COP29: Advocate for the inclusion of One Health as a central theme in the COP29 agenda, emphasizing its importance for global health and environmental sustainability. Additionally, use this platform to promote the development of a critical mass of One Health practitioners globally.
- Institutionalize One Health in strategic forums: Make One Health a recurring focus in future Global Baku Forums and integrate its principles into Azerbaijan’s next nationally determined contributions (NDCs), transforming them into “healthy NDCs” that address the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.
- Establish a One Health coordination mechanism: Create a One Health coordination body in Azerbaijan, bringing together representatives from government, academia, civil society and the private sector to foster cross-sectoral collaboration and effectively implement One Health strategies.
- Adopt a One Health approach for a national infection prevention and control strategy: Develop and implement a holistic infection prevention and control strategy that encompasses both human and animal health sectors, guided by the One Health approach. Ensure seamless coordination between these sectors to improve the detection and response to zoonotic disease outbreaks.
- Enhance data management and information sharing: Build robust mechanisms for data management and information exchange across the human, animal and environmental health sectors. Integrate existing electronic platforms to support evidence-based decision-making and improve response times.
- Operationalize One Health at the local level: Collaborate with municipal authorities and urban planners to implement the One Health approach in local communities, ensuring its effective translation into practice at the grassroots level.
- Strengthen collaboration between plant, animal and human laboratories: Modernize and expand laboratory facilities in Azerbaijan for disease diagnosis and enhance the training and skills of laboratory personnel to ensure reliable and timely diagnostic services.
- Build and support a multidisciplinary One Health workforce: Invest in educational and training programmes to develop a diverse One Health workforce, including health-care professionals, veterinarians, environmental scientists and agricultural experts. Establish a One Health workforce registry to improve accountability, coordination and continuous professional development across health sectors.
- Enhance early detection and response systems: Strengthen early detection and notification systems by leveraging both formal and informal channels and including communities in rural areas.
- Support sustainable small-scale farm transformation: Engage with small-scale farmers to co-create value propositions that enhance productivity, sustainability and resilience, while respecting their social and cultural contexts.
Mr Elmar Mammadov, Co-Lead of the COP29 Global and Regional Initiatives Action Agenda Team and Head of the Economic Cooperation Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that One Health strengthens coordination between several sectors.
“Our efforts [in COP29] aim to strengthen intersectoral cooperation globally. There are two opportunities within COP29 to integrate One Health: Human Capital day, where we are bringing together 3 sectors – education, health and labour – to strengthen coordination between them; and the Harmony initiative, which focuses on climate-resilient villages and farmers, especially women and young farmers.”
Mr Mammadov concluded, “I would like to request that the proposals to be discussed in various sessions today be presented to us. Let us integrate the One Health concept into the COP29.”
Event notice
25 July 2024
How can Azerbaijan advance the implementation of One Health through intersectoral collaboration, policy, practice and education? This is the key question that participants representing human, animal, plant and environmental health sectors will discussed in a symposium organized by WHO in Azerbaijan on 25 July 2024.
Participants will include representatives from ministries and national and international agencies working in health, agriculture and the environment; the 29th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29); and the Parliament of Azerbaijan.