FAO delegation led by Chief Veterinary Officer Keith Sumption meets with U.S. senior officials in Washington, DC
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Washington, DC – A Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) delegation led by Chief Veterinary Officer Keith Sumption, held high-level meetings during the week of March 20 in Washington, DC to further strengthen the partnership between FAO and the United States on global health security and agrifood systems.
The delegation included the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) global manager Baba Soumare; Madhur Dhingra, head of the Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health (EMPRES); a representative of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience, Director Rosanne Marchesich; and Emergency Management Centre (EMC); Manager (NSAH) Ludovic Plee.
Keith Sumption and the delegation met with leaders from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – which comprise the USDA One Health collaboration. Among these leaders were Kis Robertson-Hale - Deputy Assistant Administrator and Chief Public Health Veterinarian at USDA-FSIS, Alecia Naugle - Associate Deputy Administrator, Veterinary Services at APHIS, Tracey Dutcher, Science and Biodefense Coordinator APHIS and DHS, Kevin Morgan, Senior International Program Manager at U.S. DHS Office of Health Security.
During these meetings, Sumption and his colleagues provided information on safeguarding human, animal, plant and ecosystem health. They detailed how the concept of One Health fits within FAO’s strategic framework, the health of livestock, and how it contributes to environmental and human health. Action tracks of the global one health plan of action within the quadripartite were mentioned. The Chief Veterinary Officer also shared country case studies from protecting against rabies in Tanzania, engaging women poultry keepers in risk mitigation in Egypt, and tackling antimicrobial resistance in Bangladesh.
At the U.S. Department of State, the team held technical discussions with the Office of International Health and Biodefense (IHB), the Office of International Organization Affairs (IO) and Office of Global Food Security (GFS). In wide-ranging discussions, topics included the One Health Joint Plan of Action launched by the quadripartite, Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health and Global Animal Disease Information System.
In addition, the FAO team held a series of round table discussions with USAID offices and One Health working groups, among others: Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS), Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and Bureau for Global Health (GH). During the first meeting with RFS which involved Tracy McCracken, Emerging Threats Advisor and Andrew Bisson, Animal Health Advisor, resilient livelihoods around livestock were discussed. With Dr. Atul Gawande, Assistant Administrator for USAID GH, the team discussed the nearly twenty year partnership between the two institutions, and how to further strengthen global and regional coordination of prevention of animal health emergencies. At USAID BHA with Christine Jost, Senior Livestock advisor, FAO’s six main priorities for One Health work were mentioned: early warning and forecasting, better biosecurity, more effective emergency preparedness, AMR risk management, one health systems, and health security on the human side.
Keith Sumption and the delegation expressed thanks to the U.S. government for their generous contribution of $250 million to support FAO’s efforts to strengthen global health security and agrifood systems. They stressed the need for enhanced collaboration and commitment to translate the One Health approach into action supporting countries to safeguard human and animal health, to reduce disease threats and to ensure a safe food supply through effective and responsible management of natural resources
FAO deploys a multidisciplinary workforce in several target regions and multiple countries to implement One Health capacity-building programmes for effective prevention, preparedness, detection and response to high-impact transboundary animal diseases. The Organization has been able to scale its programme of work on strengthening animal health and One Health systems in nearly forty countries.
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