One Health Education for Community Health

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) Societies is the world’s largest humanitarian network, operating in 191 countries via Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. While the IFRC is most known for their efforts in disaster response, the national societies of IFRC are also vital in supporting community health and disaster preparedness in many countries.

To strengthen the IFRC’s capacity in One Health, the IFRC Asia Pacific Regional Office engaged with the Nossal Institute for Global Health to deliver a seminar on the foundations of One Health.

A/Prof Angus Campbell, Dr Max Barot, and Dr Justin McKinley of the Institute’s One Health Unit jointly delivered a webinar with Dr Sushma Bhusal from the IFRC Asia Pacific Regional Office and Prof. Dr. Tahmina Shirin from the Bangladesh IEDCR and One Health Secretariat. Attended by more than 80 participants with varying levels of One Health experience, the webinar was developed to help participants be able to:

• Describe the principles of the One Health approach
• Identify key One Health threats to the region
• Understand how One Health approaches can be usefully applied to Red Cross activities in the Asia-Pacific (Bangladesh example)
• Understand the role of One Health in strengthening community-based surveillance
• Describe examples of cross-sectoral joint working

There were important lessons from each section, but better understanding the role of One Health in community surveillance resonated strongly with attendees. IFRC national societies are working closely in communities and as such, can be impactful contributors to One Health community surveillance. Potentially identifying threats early in communities and mitigating significant impacts to community health.

The IFRC reported this session as highly valuable and found lessons discussed as beneficial to strengthening their community-based responses.  We look forward to future collaborations that continue to create meaningful impact on the ground.

Dr Justin McKinley is a Research Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health. He is an economist with a background in agricultural, development, and environmental economics. Justin’s research focuses on One Health Economics.