Regional One Health Workshops

Every year, LACANET One Health project partners gather together with other key players in the One Health system, to discuss, exchange experience and identify gaps that the LACANET One Health project could attempt to fill about one given topic. The 2015 Regional One Health workshop, that took place on 18^th February in Phnom Penh and on 26^th February in Vientiane, was aimed at assessing what routine mechanisms of coordination exist across the three sectors, exchange on good practices and seek how to improve One Health intersectoral communication and collaboration. To make it possible, the workshop consisted of discussing about lessons learned from case studies from Bolivia and the US, where intersectoral collaboration had been successful and less so, respectively. Participants then mapped current channels of communication in the Cambodian system and discussed where there was room for broadening those mechanisms. Lastly, participants conducted a simulation of a mystery disease outbreak, working in three groups representing animal-, wildlife- and human-health to investigate what capacity existed for an effective, cross-sectoral response. Overall 2015 Regional One Health Workshop participants’ feedback indicated very high levels of satisfaction with the approach of the event. Identified weak points were fully assessed and taken into account throughout the continuation of the LACANET One Health project.