Abstract:
OBJECTIVES : One Health is transiting from multidisciplinary to transdisciplinary concepts and its viewpoints should
move from ‘proxy for zoonoses’, to include other topics (climate change, nutrition and food safety, policy and
planning, welfare and well-being, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), vector-borne diseases, toxicosis and pesticides
issues) and thematic fields (social sciences, geography and economics). This work was conducted to map the One
Health landscape in Africa.
METHODS : An assessment of existing One Health initiatives in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries was conducted
among selected stakeholders using a multi-method approach. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to
One Health initiatives were identified, and their influence, interest and impacts were semi-quantitatively evaluated
using literature reviews, questionnaire survey and statistical analysis.
RESULTS : One Health Networks and identified initiatives were spatiotemporally spread across SSA and identified
stakeholders were classified into four quadrants. It was observed that imbalance in stakeholders' representations
led to hesitation in buying-in into One Health approach by stakeholders who are outside the main networks like
stakeholders from the policy, budgeting, geography and sometimes, the environment sectors.
CONCLUSION : Inclusion of theory of change, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and tools for standardized
evaluation of One Health policies are needed for a sustained future of One Health and future engagements should
be outputs- and outcomes-driven and not activity-driven. National roadmaps for One Health implementation and
institutionalization are necessary, and proofs of concepts in One Health should be validated and scaled-up.