The WISDOM (Worldwide Information Sharing Domain for One Health) serves as a comprehensive portal for One Health information to the public, students, and researchers. Here you could learn about various core areas of One Health through video lessons, interactive modules, expert’s talk, One Health blog, reports, and articles. You get updated on the latest research findings in the One Health domains. This aims to be a one-stop portal for One Health information sharing.
WISDOM was developed under the COHEART – UNDP partnership. The partnership aims to implement the One Health (OH) approach at the high range Himalayan ecosystem in India as a part of the project- “Green recovery Pathway for India: Transitioning Towards a Green and Resilient COVID-19 Recovery” under Rapid Financing Facility (RFF). As part of the project, the teams will build capacities among stakeholder groups (Forest/ Wildlife, Animal Husbandry, and Public Health Departments) and One Health workers to better respond to challenges posed by Zoonotic diseases in the proposed project landscapes of Uttarkashi and West Sikkim. This will be supported by the development of knowledge products intended to virtually engage key stakeholders of One Health on different One Health priority areas.
More than 60 percent of existing human infectious diseases are zoonotic and over 75 percent of the emerging diseases of humans have an animal origin. 3 out of every 5 new human diseases that appear every year are zoonotic.
The occurrence and impact of known and novel disease outbreaks are likely to increase with continued wide-scale changes in land use, transformation of agricultural practices without adequate biosecurity measures, climate change, trade, travel, and urbanization. Disease prevention and control is a multi-sectoral effort, when approached as such, can shift focus to predicting outbreaks before they lead to any illness at all. A key enabler in the fight against zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance is building greater local and state-level capacity in implementing OH approaches.
The current intensive system of livestock production calls for the development of contextually relevant policy frameworks that mitigate potential human health risks such as antimicrobial resistance and zoonotic diseases. With the signing of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) agreement and the establishment of WTO (World Trade Organization), the member countries were made free to trade between the countries. Due to this the trade in animals and animal products has expanded dramatically over the last decade and will continue to increase in the future. However, the increased potential for international trade places additional constraints on both importing and exporting countries concerning disease surveillance and the monitoring of animal health.
One Health recognizes the complex and multidisciplinary issues at the interface of human, animal, and ecosystem health that require enhanced coordination and collaboration among sectors and agencies.
UNDP is supporting the GOI in its COVID-19 response and has planned to implement the One Health approach in the high range Himalayan ecosystem in India under the project "Green Recovery Pathway for India: Transitioning towards a green and resilient COVID-19 recovery" under Rapid Financing Facility.
The SECURE Himalaya project with its partnerships at the National, State and field level provides the foundation for initiating One Health work in the project landscape. It is being implemented in the Union Territory of Ladakh and states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim under MoEFCC, GEF, and UNDP.
A Key partnership for One Health also lies with the National Biodiversity Authority, which is the nodal agency for the upcoming National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-being by the Government of India.
The One Health approach aims at achieving optimal global health solutions and outcomes through multisectoral, collaborative, and transdisciplinary efforts. The approach calls for a paradigm shift in developing and implementing health policies as it emphasizes the importance of bringing together experts from different sectors, mainly human health, animal health, and environmental health for the prevention, early detection, and effective response.
UNDP is supporting the Government of India in its COVID-19 response by implementing the project "Green Recovery Pathway for India: Transitioning towards a Green and Resilient COVID-19 Recovery" in the high range Himalayan ecosystem in India. Green recovery focuses on securing and generating green livelihoods, mainstreaming the One Health approach, and transitioning to clean energy. The project focuses on providing immediate relief from the ravages of COVID-19, along with the long-term capacity building.
Under this project, the One Health approach is being piloted in the Himalayan States of Uttarakhand and Sikkim through capacity enhancement of stakeholders, community awareness, and demonstrating best practices on prevention of zoonotic diseases.
The initiative involves bringing together experts from different sectors, mainly human health, animal health, and environmental health, and establishing a strong network of surveillance and disease outbreak management systems.
India is currently facing many health threats due to exponential growth in human and livestock population, rapid urbanization, rapidly changing farming systems, closer interaction between livestock and wildlife, forest encroachment, changes in ecosystems and globalization of trade of animal products. The factors that make India a hotspot of disease threats include its large area (32, 87,263 sq. km) that accounts for 2.4% of the total world area, border sharing with seven countries, heavily forested with a great variety of fauna and enormous population size.
India first recognized One Health concept to respond to Avian Influenza pandemic preparedness. There are a few instances of collaboration in India for the control of outbreaks. Institutions like ICMR and ICAR collaborated for joint research priorities, whereas RCZI (Roadmap to combat zoonoses in India) was formulated in PHFI (Public Health Foundation of India) for zoonotic research, which signifies the level-based (research) collaboration initiatives in the country. Similarly, there are few examples of solution-based approaches, such as the national influenza pandemic committee to control avian influenza and leptospirosis.
A unique state-specific level-based collaboration strategy was developed for controlling rabies in the state of Tamil Nadu. The strategy adapted in Tamil Nadu involved triangulating the dog bite surveillance data with vaccine consumption and dog population to find out the trend at the district and state level. Further the activities were conducted by separate departments at various levels and all the departments were linked with similar and specific objectives.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare notified three governance mechanisms in September 2016 to address AMR challenge with help of which has drafted the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR) that has incorporated the One Health approach.
The Delhi Declaration signed by the Health Minister of India and other Member States advocates the ‘One Health’ approach. Another recent initiative that signifies the role of a third party is by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, who has proposed to have a One Health roadmap for India with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
.jpeg)
