One Health: Data for evidence-based health management in the African Union

Project description

Title: One Health Data Alliance Africa (OHDAA)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Member States of the African Union​​​​​​​
Lead executing agency: African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)​​​​​​​
Overall term: 2022 to 2024

Context

One Health is a transdisciplinary approach that recognises the interconnection between human, animal and environmental health. In order to safeguard health, the approach promotes cooperation and coordination between different sectors, as well as comprehensive prevention and response measures.

There are already non-digitalised platforms for cooperation between the different organisations, ministries, institutions and stakeholders responsible for health, agriculture and the environment. However, intersectoral data that can inform evidence-based decision-making and that are necessary for holistic health and crisis management are largely unavailable.

Objective

One Health management is improved and data is available from the different sectors in individual countries and across the whole continent.

Approach

The project supports the African Union in creating principles for data integration and data exchange between sectors and countries. This should provide effective and timely prevention of and response to health threats.

The project supports a One Health information policy and architecture in partnership with the African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and other stakeholders. These are principles for an overall structure, exchange and use of information in the African Union.

On this basis, the project supports the establishment of continental and national One Health information platforms. The platforms serve as a medium to integrate information across sectors and support analysis and international exchange. The integration of socio-economic data enable measurement of economic impacts and so take account of the needs of disadvantaged population groups.

In order to ensure the sustainability of the One Health information platforms, the project will develop training material for their design, operation and maintenance, and make these accessible to African specialists.

Last update: August 2022