[ 2016-11-23 ]

Ghana committed to implementing ‘One Health’ initiative - Dr Odame
The Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation of the Ministry of Health, Dr Emmanuel
Ankrah Odame, has said Ghana is committed to
implementing the “One Health” approach to
designing health systems and services in ways that
successfully prevent and manage public health
emergencies and threats.
Dr Odame, who represented the Minister of Health,
Mr Alex Segbefia, at the first-ever Ministerial
West African Regional Conference on ‘’One
Health’’ in Dakar, Senegal recently, said the
meeting offered a platform for countries at risk
of zoonotic diseases to build partnerships and
sustain regular engagements to make human and
animal health security foremost.

The conference was hosted by the World Health
Organisation’s Regional Office for Africa, the
United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), the World Organisation for
Animal Health (OIE), the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, the West
African Health Organisation (WAHO), the Regional
Animal Health Centre (RAHC), the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), the
World Bank and the United States (US) Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The lessons of Ebola are clear for all of us to
see. We need to learn from best practices,” Dr
Odame stated.

Self assessment

Dr Odame said Ghana had already conducted a self
assessment exercise and was planning to undertake
a joint external evaluation in January 2017
towards the integrated approach to human, animal
and wildlife health security.

After this is done, he said the country would then
develop a comprehensive action plan to implement
the initiative.

Political attention

He hinted that advocacy efforts were ongoing to
place the One Health programme under the office
of the Vice-President to attract the highest level
of political attention and action.

Furthermore, he said measures were being taken to
back the concept with legislation in order to
ensure effective implementation.

According to him, Ghana was a signatory to the
Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), an effort by
more than 50 countries, international and civil
society organisations to ensure global
preparedness in line with the WHO’s
International Health Regulation (IHR) and other
relevant frameworks.

Dr Odame said the GHSA was launched in February
2014 by leaders from 28 countries, the WHO, OIE
and FAO and in September 2015, the second GHSA
ministerial meeting came out with a declaration
which Ghana endorsed, proving that the country is
committed to the agenda.

Source - Graphiconline

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