Programme Background

South East Asia is threatened by rapid environmental changes under the pressure of the economic development and insertion into the global economy. From this perspective, the South East Asia (SEA) region, which is considered as a particularly significant biodiversity hotspot, risks new pathogen emergence, zoonotic emergence and vector-borne disease transmission.

Furthermore, economics of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region will considerably increase the mobility of people and livestock across South East Asian countries. This will likely increase pathogen transmission and disease emergence risks. 

Transboundary and emergent infectious disease management, calls for better integration between various scientific disciplines: animal health, public health, social science, engineering, ecological and environmental sciences. In “non-crisis times” people are reluctant to come together and achieve a common understanding because there is no external force to drive them.

However, based on our work within regional One Health Networks we have realised that when professionals from different sectors are pushed to express their point of view on risk management, a constructive dialogue concerning conflicting interests arises. This is the reason why the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) , the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Kasetsart University, and the National Veterinary College of Toulouse (ENVT)  developed the InterRisk Master's Programme in order to institutionalise new interdisciplinary approaches for health risk management through the One Health perspective.