Regional
One Health
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On 3 November each year, the global community celebrates One Health Day, an international campaign that promotes collaboration across the human, animal, and environmental sectors to address complex health challenges. Established in 2016, One Health Day provides an opportunity for governments, international organisations, academia, civil society and communities to showcase how the One Health approach is being translated into action around the world. Between 2016 and 2025, more than 1,200 events were registered globally, demonstrating growing recognition that health challenges can only be effectively addressed through multidisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration.
The One Health approach recognises that the health of people, animals, plants and ecosystems is interconnected. Increasing pressures such as emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), environmental degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss highlight the need for coordinated action across sectors. One Health Day serves as a reminder that sustainable solutions require collaboration that goes beyond traditional institutional and disciplinary boundaries.
As the global authority on animal health and welfare, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) champions the One Health approach. WOAH works closely with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the Quadripartite partnership to strengthen prevention, preparedness and response to health threats at the human-animal-environment interface. In 2026, One Health gained further momentum, with leaders reaffirming their commitment at a summit in Lyon, France, and the Quadripartite renewing its Memorandum of Understanding on One Health.
Across Asia and the Pacific, WOAH supports its Members in implementing One Health through activities addressing priority issues such as building capacity for early detection of health threats, control and elimination of emerging and endemic zoonoses, addressing food safety and antimicrobial resistance, and strengthening the integration of wildlife health and environmental considerations into One Health approaches.
In one example, we worked with governments and partners in human health and environmental health at the 2nd Pacific One Health Workshop in Fiji to identify priorities for strengthening multisectoral coordination and improve preparedness and response capacities across the region. Read a joint press release on the event here.
Efforts like these among many others showcased on this site, contribute to stronger and more resilient health systems while supporting sustainable development objectives.
The 11th One Health Day will be observed on 3 November 2026, providing another opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of integrated approaches to health and to share practical examples of One Health in action. One Health Day encourages stakeholders to showcase initiatives that strengthen collaboration across sectors and contribute to healthier people, healthier animals and healthier ecosystems.
To mark One Health Day 2026, the WOAH Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific and the Sub-Regional Representation for South-East Asia will showcase a collection of One Health stories from across the Asia and the Pacific region, highlighting practical examples of multisectoral collaboration to address health challenges at the human-animal-environment interface. These case studies will demonstrate how countries and partners are applying One Health approaches to strengthen prevention, preparedness, surveillance and response, while promoting collaboration among animal health, public health, environmental and community stakeholders. Recent examples include the One Health case studies from Bhutan and Japan.
As mentioned, WOAH also shared recent One Health progress from the Pacific Island Countries and Territories: read event details and achievements of the second Quadripartite One Health Workshop in Fiji.
As part of the observance, WOAH shares the findings of a regional wildlife health stakeholder mapping survey, which explored existing expertise and capacity, priority needs and opportunities for collaboration across Asia and the Pacific. The findings highlighted strong interest in regional networking and knowledge exchange, alongside the need for better integration of wildlife health into One Health approaches.
to reaffirm the importance of the One Health approach as an essential framework for addressing increasingly complex and interconnected health risks.
One Health Day provides an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of the One Health approach as an essential framework for addressing increasingly complex and interconnected health risks.
WOAH encourages its Members to continue strengthening sustainable national One Health governance mechanisms that facilitate regular collaboration, information sharing and joint decision-making across sectors. Effective One Health implementation requires long-term institutional arrangements and sustained investment that extend beyond project-based activities and enable coordinated action before, during and after health emergencies. A whole-of-society approach that involves governments, communities, Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, academia and civil society is vital to achieving this.
WOAH also highlights the importance of meaningfully engaging environmental and wildlife sectors within national and regional One Health frameworks. As environmental change, biodiversity loss and increased human-animal-environment interactions continue to influence disease emergence and transmission, stronger inclusion of wildlife health expertise and environmental authorities is essential for comprehensive risk assessment, surveillance and prevention efforts.
By strengthening collaboration across all relevant sectors, countries can build more resilient systems capable of preventing, detecting and responding to health threats while safeguarding animal health, public health, biodiversity and ecosystem health for future generations.
To find out more, visit the One Health Day website (onehealthday.com) and explore WOAH’s One Health resources on this website.
