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As a flagship event of the French G7 Presidency, the “One Health” summit brought together, over three days, numerous heads of state and government, parliamentarians, several international organisations, scientists from around the world, as well as representatives of civil society, young people and local stakeholders, with the aim of accelerating the implementation of the “One Health” approach. 

The “One Health” principle is based on a long-held belief: the interdependence of human, animal and plant health, and ecosystems. This interdependence requires the deployment of coordinated approaches based on science, prevention, knowledge-sharing and international cooperation to tackle common health threats.  

The summit was based on four fundamental principles:

• The importance of science, research, and innovation
• The promotion of action-oriented multilateralism and international partnerships
• The central role of public-private partnerships
• The inclusive participation of civil society, local authorities, and young people.

The “One Health” principle is based on a long-held belief: the interdependence of human, animal and plant health, and ecosystems. This interdependence requires the deployment of coordinated approaches based on science, prevention, knowledge-sharing and international cooperation to tackle common health threats. The high-level session during which the main announcements were made brought together 10 heads of state, government and international organisations. The summit also provided an opportunity to highlight the significant contribution made by the Pasteur Institute in this field, particularly through the construction of the CMTV building, which was mentioned.

Watch the Summit on YouTube

Fostering synergies  

The summit gave a platform to numerous stakeholders to develop synergies in support of the One Health approach. Among the project leaders and speakers were two representatives from the Institut Pasteur: 

• Hervé Bourhy, Hervé Bourhy, Head of the Lyssavirus, Epidemiology and Neuropathology Unit, Head of the National Reference Centre (CNR) for Rabies and Head of WHO Collaborating Centre and director of the Global Health Department, spoke on 6 April at the event:

  • a special session entitled ‘Civil Society and One Health: Catalysts for Change’. Supported by the “One Sustainable Health” foundation (a foundation hosted by the Institut Pasteur), this key event, organised as a forum, aimed to highlight and support the essential role of civil society organisations in innovation, their proven ability to adapt, and their agility in responding on the ground to One Health challenges. By mobilising local networks, monitoring implementation and ensuring that funds reach the ground, civil society effectively helps to translate commitments made at the highest level into concrete actions. Thus, the implementation of the ‘One Health’ approach becomes a collaborative effort: rooted in cultural diversity, drawing on indigenous and local knowledge, and supported by inclusive governance and responsible investment. Hervé Bourhy spoke to raise awareness of the issue of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and zoonoses. In this context, the role of community health workers, who are closest to the needs and expectations of local populations, was discussed.
    
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  • a side event to the summit, co-organised by the Pasteur Institute alongside the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Entitled “From rabies to readiness: community surveillance for One Health” and held under the auspices of the International Alliance for Biological Standardisation, this other highlight aimed to present and adopt a governance model for community surveillance to prevent and combat zoonoses. Based on the central model of rabies (covering detection, prevention, treatment and response, surveillance networks, etc.), this governance model is intended to be applied to other priority zoonotic diseases. Several countries have already responded positively to its wider deployment across the globe.
     
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These two points were included in the summit’s conclusions and those adopted by the WHO.
 

• Camille Lambert, a PhD student in the five-year research group “Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases” led by Michael White, was invited to give a pitch as part of the summit’s “Youth” session. Camille Lambert also helped to champion the cause of an engaged international youth. Thus, at the invitation of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), with the support of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and in partnership with youth organisations, the event “Youth Calls on the World – One Planet, One Health, One Generation in Action“ took place on 6 April. This gathering brought together around a hundred young adults from five continents, committed to the practical implementation of the One Health approach, to make a collective case to decision-makers and enrich the summit’s discussions.

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Working with civil society – Questions for Hervé Bourhy

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"One of the main challenges in managing infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries is the lack of coordination between the health sector (covering both human and animal health in the case of zoonotic infections) and the communities it serves, which often results in the late detection of outbreaks and ineffective disease control.
My aim at the One Health summit was to advocate for community empowerment, particularly through the role of community health workers and community animal health workers, who can help bridge this gap by quickly identifying suspected cases and facilitating communication between communities and health services. The joint development of surveillance, response and prevention strategies with communities in resource-limited countries is therefore a key priority. This multi-stakeholder political, municipal and operational framework will enable the establishment of a scalable One Health model to combat existing, emerging and re-emerging diseases, including zoonotic threats. Ultimately, this process of community empowerment paves the way for more resilient and responsive public and animal health infrastructures in the regions most affected by zoonotic diseases.” 
 

Embodying youth – Camille Lambert, PhD student in the G5 Infectious Disease Epidemiology group

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”I was invited to speak on June 6. My pitch focused on my PhD project, the ULTIMASero project, which I am conducting here at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, in collaboration with three institutes within the Pasteur Network (Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar and Pasteur Center in Cameroon). It is a longitudinal epidemiological study in which we are monitoring children with fever. The aim is to understand and map what makes these children ill and then to model the dynamics and evolution of antibodies over the course of a year. The purpose of this pitch was to explain how my project is fully aligned with the One Health approach and how I, as a young scientist, am involved in this field on a daily basis. 
The aim of this presentation, beyond delivering my pitch, was also to present the advocacy document on which I and more than a dozen others had worked in the weeks leading up to the event. This advocacy document was intended for the ‘policy-makers’ attending the event, including the Minister for Francophonie and the Director of the FAO.”

Find more about the advocacy document (in French)

Commitments from the Summit on the Health of Living Organisms and the Planet
The One Health Summit marked a decisive step towards firmly establishing prevention at the heart of the international agenda, by bringing together international cooperation, science, innovation, funding and governance. Several commitments have thus emerged: 

• Better understanding for better action: science, data and training as the foundations of public policy, 

• Pooling efforts in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, 

• Better monitoring for better prevention: integrating animal, human and environmental health, 

• Protecting health from the impacts of pollution and plastics and addressing the imperative to safeguard populations and ecosystems that remain overly exposed, 

• Transforming food systems and making what we eat a sustainable driver of health, 

• Scaling up action, being inclusive and changing the scale of operations by stepping up advocacy and mobilising funding, 

• Making the One Health approach a standard feature of the global, national and regional political agenda, 

• Implementing One Health at the local level, as close as possible to communities, and embedding prevention in everyday life, at all stages of life.

 Find more about commitment of the One Health Summit (in French)