Knowledge integration in One Health policy formulation, implementation and evaluation

Abstract

The One Health concept covers the interrelationship between human, animal and environmental health and requires multistakeholder collaboration across many cultural, disciplinary, institutional and sectoral boundaries. Yet, the implementation of the One Health approach appears hampered by shortcomings in the global framework for health governance. Knowledge integration approaches, at all stages of policy development, could help to address these shortcomings. The identification of key objectives, the resolving of trade-offs and the creation of a common vision and a common direction can be supported by multicriteria analyses. Evidence-based decision-making and transformation of observations into narratives detailing how situations emerge and might unfold in the future can be achieved by systems thinking. Finally, transdisciplinary approaches can be used both to improve the effectiveness of existing systems and to develop novel networks for collective action. To strengthen One Health governance, we propose that knowledge integration becomes a key feature of all stages in the development of related policies. We suggest several ways in which such integration could be promoted.

Global Crisis Leadership for Disease‐Induced Threats: One Health and Urbanisation

“…From an epistemic network‐building perceptive, a World One Health Congress has been held every year and this has been an opportunity for researchers from multiple disciplines to come together to share knowledge, which is a positive for improving knowledge integration between stakeholders (Hitziger et al, 2018). From an international public policy perspective, such developments enhance the prospect of the emergence of an OH ‘epistemic community’ (Haas, 1992).…”

“…That being said, political studies call upon critics of those who might consider the integration of organisations within complex network governance environments to be mindful of the change‐making roles of meso‐ level leaders who can be effective in navigating through relationships across geographical areas, municipalities, and territories within states (Lipsky, 2010; Luke, 1998; Williams, 2012). For a transdisciplinary approach to be considered as a way to address risks at the animal‐human interface, there need to be ‘co‐leadership’ across boundaries (Hitziger et al, 2018). This is based on the idea that bringing sectors together and exchanging experiential learning leads to public and societal value in that it can help to build trust, strengthen networks for collaboration and even eliminate prejudice (Hitziger et al, 2018).…”

“…For a transdisciplinary approach to be considered as a way to address risks at the animal‐human interface, there need to be ‘co‐leadership’ across boundaries (Hitziger et al, 2018). This is based on the idea that bringing sectors together and exchanging experiential learning leads to public and societal value in that it can help to build trust, strengthen networks for collaboration and even eliminate prejudice (Hitziger et al, 2018). Governance scholars also recognise the links between trust‐building, joined up approaches to addressing social problems, deliberative practices and ‘public value’ (Moore, 1995; Stoker, 2006).…”

“…OH recognises what has been known for many decades, which is that human and animal health is interdependent. Therefore, OH promotes ‘the interrelationship between human, animal and environmental health, which requires multi‐stakeholder collaboration across many cultural, disciplinary, institutional and sectoral boundaries’ (Hitziger et al, 2018, p. 211). The 2019–2020 coronavirus (Covid‐19), which emerged from China, has served to further restate the need for global health security paradigms which focus on the risks of diseases at the animal‐human interface 1 .…”

Integrative concepts and practices of health in transdisciplinary social ecology

“…Lovell et al 2014;Chen et al 2019). Evaluations of One Health as a field of activity have also been undertaken (Baum et al 2016;Hitziger et al 2018). However, extensive and systematic surveys of knowledge in the boundary field of human, non-human and ecosystem health have not been published except for some areas such as zoonoses (Anholt et al 2012) and infectious disease control (Manlove et al 2016).…”