Member States of the Non-Aligned Movement accord a high priority to health sector. Member States of NAM in their individual capacity or as members of some groupings have taken number of initiatives in the health sector. Recently, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States made a historic Declaration on One Health Initiative during the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia, on 10 – 11 May 2023.
Before highlighting the main features of the ASEAN Declaration, it is imperative to define the term ‘One Health’. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), ‘One Health’ is an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and the environment. It is particularly important to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to global health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach mobilizes multiple sectors, disciplines and communities at varying levels of society to work together. This way, new and better ideas are developed that address root causes and create long-term, sustainable solutions. One Health involves the public health, veterinary, public health and environmental sectors.
The ASEAN Declaration on One Health noted the devastating and multidimensional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases including zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), growing impact and other challenges related to climate change on human lives and livelihoods, and the need to strengthen health systems to be resilient and responsive, as envisioned in ASEAN Blueprint. The Declaration also noted the work of the One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) and One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022-2026) to enhance the ASEAN’s ability to optimise the health of humans, animals, plants, and ecosystem as well as the capacity to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to health threats.
The Declaration also recognised the increased risk and vulnerabilities of each Member State towards the threats to human, animal, plants, and environment with epidemic and pandemic potential including zoonoses, food hazards, antimicrobial resistance, exacerbated by climate change and stated that this has shown the importance of a multi-sectoral and collaborative One Health approach. In this context, the Declaration emphasised the importance of building upon successful experiences, best practices, and the progress made thus far in One Health initiatives and projects in ASEAN, including involvement of stakeholders and community awareness. The Declaration also recognised that a sustained One Health approach requires sufficient resources and support from governmental, non-governmental entities, and international and development partners.
The ASEAN Declaration committed to establish ASEAN One Health Network supported by ASEAN secretariat, to develop and strengthen multisectoral collaboration and coordination of One Health Initiative among ASEAN Member States, including establishing linkage to existing and/or potential national mechanism of ASEAN Member States. The Declaration also committed to define priority health threats to human, animals, plant and environment including zoonotic pathogens that caused outbreaks and those with pandemic potential, to guide investment, research, and development for prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) activities.
The ASEAN Declaration on One Health Initiative has also called for pursuing a comprehensive analysis of One Health implementation in ASEAN Member States and globally to assess national and regional capacity for strengthening the implementation of One Health. The Declaration calls for developing ASEAN One Health Joint Plan of Action to improve regional and national capacity and capabilities with targets that are tangible, measurable, and time-bound, that calls for a stronger cross-sectoral collaboration between the relevant sectors involved in human, animal, plant, and environmental health, as well as food safety among the ASEAN Member States, including through bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
The Declaration encourages ASEAN Member States to consolidate all One Health initiatives and mainstream the approach and implementation into relevant sectoral bodies, including but not limited to public health, animal, wildlife, plant, environment and food with advancement of national and regional capacities to prevent, detect and respond to future threats and to sustainably balance and optimise the health of human-animal-plant-environment interface.
The One Health Declaration marks a crucial element in the effort to create a more resilient ASEAN’s health architecture.
