Stone Mountain Workgroups

“Operationalizing ” One Health

At the request of and in close collaboration with the World

Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the

World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hosted a meeting

entitled Operationalizing “One Health”: A Policy Perspective—Taking

Stock and Shaping an Implementation Roadmap in Stone Mountain,

Georgia, USA, May 4-6, 2010.

The specific goal of the Stone Mountain Meeting (SMM) was to identify clear and concrete actions to

move the concept of One Health from vision to implementation. Six specific activities were identified as

critical steps in attaining a defined 3-5 year vision of One Health and separate workgroups were formed

to address each of these activities, now known as the Stone Mountain Meeting Workgroups.

Stone Mountain Meeting Workgroup Updates

Business Plan Workgroup

Chair: Jan Slingenbergh

The Business Plan workgroup has been tasked with articulating the concept of and rationale for One Health more clearly and identify a strategy to present this information to policymakers and donors worldwide. The group intends to define the overall importance

of One Health and create an investment document, or socio-economic framework, that

clearly defines the general concepts of One Health.

This workgroup is collaborating with a group of University of Georgia MBA students on

developing a domestic Business Plan for One Health. An “open” business model was identified as most

appropriate for One Health as it allows stakeholders to work together to produce a central value (better

health) by establishing the particular benefits that a One Health approach can offer to each individual

stakeholder (value proposition). Using this model, the group is developing a unique One Health value

proposition for a variety of stakeholders based on research and formal interviews. Targeted stakeholders

include private sector and industry, federal agencies, and foundations. These individual value propositions will help define the mutually beneficial relationship between stakeholders and One Health.

Capacity BuildingWorkgroup

Chairs: Katey Pelican, University of Minnesota and Purvi Mehta, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

The Capacity Building workgroup’s role is to raise awareness and expand engagement in One Health by identifying opportunities to leverage existing programs and build more coordinated One Health efforts on the

ground which ideally will result in substantial health impact at very little cost.

The group’s activities were delayed while they identified a co-lead; however, once both co-leaders were in

place, the group began to meet via conference call and refine their action plan. Based on discussions during

Katey Pelican, U. of the SMM and potential alignments with other SMM workgroups, the group would like to develop a funding Minnesota proposal for two country-level workshops, using the output from existing assessments (IHR, PVS, World

Bank Guide), to identify gaps in capacity in two countries in different regions, for example one workshop in Africa and one in

Asia. The group will identify model One Health programs in those countries and create an inventory cataloging activities at the community, in-service, and academic levels (abstracts from the 1st International One Health

Congress in Melbourne may provide some examples). Finally, the group will hold a meeting, bringing together key One Health capacity building ‘players’, to develop a country-level capacity building plan that meets

the needs identified in the gap analysis. This meeting will also be an opportunity to discuss project models,

individual country capacities, and definitions of One Health capacity building in each country’s context.

Country-Level Needs Assessment Workgroup

Chair: Jean Kamanzi

Following the SMM, the Country-Level Needs Assessment workgroup was tasked with developing a selfassessment guidance document or tool that could be used by countries to identify:

1. Whether One Health approaches are currently in place,

2. Programmatic areas that may benefit from a One Health approach, and

3. Specific areas for targeting improvement

The World Bank took the lead, garnering funding for this project and began developing a guide to measure a

country’s level of achievement in integrating human, animal and environmental health sectors. In April 2011, the workgroup

reconvened for a workshop at the CDC in Atlanta; building on existing resources and tools, this workshop focused on further

developing the World Bank’s draft One Health Self-Assessment Guide, focusing not only on content, but also on implementation,

organization and structure of the guide. It is an educational resource for countries and the results are intended to help countries

identify:

 What they are currently doing with respect to horizontal management across sectors;

 What they are planning to do to directly or indirectly implement a One Health approach; and

 How their priorities are consistent with and supportive of One Health.

Next steps include revising the guide based on feedback received during the workshop. Workgroup members volunteered to

share the guide with colleagues and pilot it within an academic setting as a “test run” to evaluate

flow and locate any possible areas of misunderstanding. Once the guide has been refined based

on this feedback, it will be piloted in three or four countries representing a broad range of characteristics (i.e., cultural and geographical differences, size of economy/level of resources, existing One Health activities, etc.). In addition, the group will continue to work virtually finalizing

other important details, including possible points of entry into a country, incentives to encourage countries to use the assessment, and ownership of the guide.

One Health Global Network (OHGN)Workgroup

Chairs: Alain Vandersmissen, European External Action Service (EEAS) and Tracey McNamara, Western University

The OHGN workgroup was established to advocate and garner international support for One Health by

serving as a vehicle for global collaboration on One Health programs and projects. The role of the Information Clearinghouse workgroup was to promote One Health advocacy and enable connectivity through a centralized area where One Health success stories are gathered and available to a wide-ranging audience. Due to cross-over in goals and objectives, the leaders of these two groups combined their efforts into one workAlain Vandersmissen, EEAS group. At present, the newly combined workgroup is still called OHGN.

As the two workgroups finalize their merge (i.e., a new name for the workgroup), the One Health Office has secured funding

from the US Department of State to bring some members of the combined workgroup together to define new goals and objectives and design an action plan and timeline for the group’s activities. OIE will contribute additional funding for a facilitator.

The meeting is scheduled to take place by the end of September 2011and the location has not yet been finalized.

The workgroup leaders are sending “trial” invitations to their contacts requesting they join the OHGN.

Their reaction and feedback will help gauge the level of interest among colleagues. In addition, the European Commission is funding two experts to research the area of One Health and catalog One Health actors.

This inventory will include preliminary databases, bibliographies and case studies, proving to be very useful University

in supporting the efforts of the other workgroups.

Proof of Concept Workgroup

Chairs: Malika Kachani, Western University and Peter Rabinowitz, Yale University

The objective of the Proof of Concept workgroup is to demonstrate through both a retrospective and a prospective evidence base that the use of One Health interventions leads to better cross-species health outcomes

than comparable health-care systems that do not utilize One Health concepts.

After the SMM, the group reconvened in September 2010 in Atlanta, GA. Participants discussed potential

prospective study designs that would demonstrate an integrated One Health approach can reduce rates of

diarrheal disease in humans and also improve animal and environmental health at the local level. Subsequent

to the meeting, the group continued to work virtually and agreed upon a village level One Health team intervention study framework and a corresponding budget. The group is currently exploring funding options. Once the study is

funded, the framework can be expanded on to correspond with the funding institution’s goals and objectives, while the work

group continues to serve in an advisory role.

In addition, the group is focusing on a systematic literature review of past One Health examples. Study criteria were agreed

upon by the group (i.e., intervention studies involving human, animal, and environmental health professionals and those that

track outcomes in animals, humans, and the environment), to help determine whether there are published (or

unpublished) studies that fit these criteria.

Finally, a number of interesting and valuable One Health Proof of Concept ideas have arisen from the group.

A research agenda is underway to collect each of these proposals in one central area. Once the initial basic

Proof of Concept study proposal is funded and carried out, the proposals found in this research agenda will

provide additional support through examples of One Health in action.

Training Workgroup

Chairs: Joe Annelli, USDA and Kira Christian, CDC

The group was charged with developing and building skills, expertise, and competencies through a One

Health training curriculum for various target audiences in order to develop One Health leaders and workers capable of planning and implementing One Health activities. During their first conference call, it became clear that many One Health training programs already exist. Therefore, the group reevaluated its

objectives and a three step process was developed in order to achieve the group’s goals: 1) develop a cataJoe Annelli, USDA logue of existing courses, 2) develop a list of essential core competencies for each level of One Health Practitioner, and 3) conduct a gap analysis between what needs to be learned to meet the core competencies and the learning objectives in existing courses. The group is being assisted in the catalogue development by Angela Clark a veterinary student summer

intern at USDA. She has begun surveying workgroup members and compiling the list of courses.

The data call for all group members to send in courses revealed a wide range of courses already being delivered. For example:

 Masters level courses: Ex. Massey University in New Zealand (http://www.onehealth.org.nz/index.php/training)

 Certificate courses: Ex. University of Wisconsin’s Center for Global Health (http://

centerforglobalhealth.wisc.edu/173.htm)

 One Health Courses: Ex. University of California-Davis, Global Health

 Training the next generation of One Health Practitioners: Ex. The development of a High School level One Health

Track Program sponsored by the Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Center at Texas A&M University (http://

fazd.tamu.edu/education-and-outreach-systems/the-national-one-health-career-oriented-job-trained-youth-educational

-program/)

The group (which has grown from 22 to 33 members) is currently expanding its catalogue of courses and will begin to compile

and decide on the critical core competencies at the multiple levels (orientation, operations, proficient, practitioner, and leader) of One Health Practitioners. The gap analysis is scheduled to start before the Joint Ministerial meeting in November so as to present some of the valuable findings during that meeting. Based on results from the gap analysis, the group will “publish” a catalogue of existing courses (in association with the

OHGN/Information Clearing House workgroup) and develop or encourage the development of courses that

would fill the identified gaps.