At Quadripartite meeting, FAO Director-General urges on the ground delivery of One Health benefits

Geneva - The One Health initiative is already producing results and should be further strengthened to deliver more concrete benefits to Members of the four international organizations who champion it, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), said today at the first in-person executive meeting of the Quadripartite, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. 

The Quadripartite consists of FAO, WHO, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE). Highlighting that One Health “is always in my heart and in my mind,” Qu noted that the approach is now high on the agenda of the G7 and G20 fora and has been recognized at major multilateral conventions such as the COP27 in Egypt, the COP 15 in Montreal and the recent Ministerial Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance in Oman.

 “I am very pleased with our joint collaboration, actions and outcomes,” he said to the principals of the other three organizations who also attended the meeting, noting that One Health should be seen not just as an approach but as a goal.

Qu highlighted that, under FAO’s chairmanship, the Quadripartite developed a guide for UN Resident Coordinators and country teams to include One Health in their national frameworks and support implementation of the One Health Joint Plan of Action at national level. Galvanizing government ministers to work together across disciplines is essential to achieve results, he added. 

One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. FAO promotes it as part of agrifood systems transformation, involving a spectrum of actors and work on sustainable agriculture, animal, plant, forest and aquaculture health, food safety, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), food security, nutrition and livelihoods.

While the One Health approach is recognized as essential to anticipate, prevent, detect and control diseases that spread between animals and humans, it is also important for plant health, he said.

One Health aims are embedded as a priority in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31, particularly with an eye to enhance productivity and reduce risks from biological threats by applying integrated pest and biosecurity management in countries, thus enabling them to pursue more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems in a changing climate and environment.

Geneva meeting

Now that the Quadripartite’s Joint Plan of Action is in motion, it is time to focus on adding value for Members through efforts at strengthening joint deliver at country level, and improving communication, the Director-General said. Expanding the field of action to private-sector partners is also critical, Qu emphasized.

The Director-General participated in the open and closed session of the executive meeting and chaired a session reviewing progress made so far.