Organized by the coalition One Europe for Global Health (OEGH) with the support of the One Sustainable Health for All Foundation and the Virchow Foundation, the workshop “Towards a World Network of One Sustainable Health Institutes” was held at the World Health Summit, in Berlin, on October 15, 2024.
One health – planetary, animal and human – interdependent, fragile, weakened by past and present human behaviour, needs the World’s full attention. By mobilizing the determination and commitment of influential entities in different regions around the World, the One Sustainable Health Institute initiative aims to contribute to the global awareness of the issues, but above all, solutions for reversing the negative trends perpetrated by humankind that are progressively provoking the decline of health for all.
The global network of One Sustainable Health Institutes would serve as the focal point for generation of operational guidelines, training programs, and certification thereof, for the institutes within the network.
Several high-level representatives of local entities from Africa, China, Europe, Latin America & the Carribean and North America, presented their vision on how this initiative would accelerate the operationalisation of One Sustainable Health. This will be achieved through leveraging local competence, knowledge, commitment and resources – financial and other, to facilitate understanding, development and implementation of One Sustainable Health solutions in different world regions.
Each representative offered key examples of their current actions towards One Sustainable Health and relations with their local / Regional diaspora. In so doing they effectively illustrated that the transition to integrating One Sustainable Health into local practice is actually quite realistic and achievable! It will require communication of the existing knowledge, combined with the sensitisation and training of the people in positions of influence and action in the diaspora, including the general public. This strategic aspect was particularly well highlighted in the intervention of the WHO Academy, to be officially inaugurated this December in Lyon.
This network, driven by Civil Society in concert with government, and regulatory agencies, is founded on a transversal and multidisciplinary cross-section of Society, comprised of individuals, Associations, Foundations, enterprise, governmental representation, public and private operators and academics, with the objective of identifying impactful operational programmes, pilot actions, and innovative guidelines for their funding and implementation. The local specificities and common challenges was presented in view of underlining the strength and feasibility of this initiative.