One Health good practices across the European Region: the co-production of a Compendium

ISSUE/PROBLEM: The international and scientific community has been calling for many years to strengthen prevention and preparedness to threats at the human-animal-environment interface by integrating a systemic approach, such One Health (OH). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of OH to enhance health security. However, at the national level, governments are delaying the integration of OH in their public health systems or in national health plans. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM: The WHO Regional Office for Europe is supporting the elaboration of a Compendium of operationalized and/or implemented OH practices within the Region, highlighting enabling factors and lessons learnt to promote OH adoption, in line with the One Health Joint Plan of Action 2022-2026 (OH JPA) of the Quadripartite Organizations. The Compendium is part of the efforts of the WHO European Region 2024-2030 strategy and it responds to the recommendations of the 2021 Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development. RESULTS: OH practices within the European Region are identified through a rapid review and are validated with stakeholder interviews to select those concretely supporting OH operationalization and implementation. The practices are described according to the following characteristics: country, sector, OH JPA action track, OH principles, disciplines and stakeholders involved. Specific additional attributes, like innovation, sustainability, efficacy, replicability and advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are supporting the process of inclusion in the Compendium. LESSONS: Lessons learned from the practices provide a framework for action to scale up OH within the Region and globally. Collective action for OH operationalization and implementation in preventing, preparing for, detecting, and managing health threats at national and local level is advanced, supporting the achievement of key SDGs, with an up-to-date vision according to the OH JPA. KEY MESSAGES: • OH good practices within the European Region are collected in a Compendium to promote and guide OH approaches integration in national plans and to enhance health security in the Region and globally. • The Compendium supports multisectoral and multistakeholder actions for OH operationalization and implementation, with an up-to-date vision supporting the OH JPA and the achievement of key SDGs.