The One Health Poultry Hub team in Vietnam attended the Vietnam One Health Partnership for Zoonotic Diseases 2021-2025 signing ceremony organised by the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Hanoi.

Vietnam team
The Vietnam team attends the One Health Partnership signing ceremony Image: Hoa Pham

Deputy Ministers from MARD, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as a UN representative, gave opening speeches at the event, on Tuesday 23 March.

These were followed by presentations, including an overview of One Health efforts on a global and regional scale, a review of the last five years under the One Health Partnership 2016-2020, and key points from the 2021-2025 One Health Partnership.

Development partners – including the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children’s Fund, European Union, United Kingdom and United States – were also invited to share statements about potential cooperation within the One Health Partnership Framework.

The Poultry Hub partners in Vietnam – The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) and CIRAD – are members of the One Health Partnership, and other Hub partners, Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), National Institute of Veterinary Research (NIVR), Department of Animal Health, and National Institute of Animal Sciences, are part of MARD. As such, all are involved in different ways to implement its objectives.

In particular, NIHE has actively contributed to the control of the COVID-19 pandemic and fight against AMR. CIRAD, in collaboration with the Hub’s Vietnam institutions (VNUA, NIVR) have implemented studies on surveillance of the influenza virus and AMR in the animal health sector.

Mr Dang Duc Anh (director of NIHE) signing Image: Mai Hung

The 2021-2025 One Health Partnership aims to continue strengthening the coordination of One Health stakeholders including Vietnam government agencies, international organisations, non-governmental entities and private sector actors in Vietnam; establish a framework and forum for multi-sectoral dialogue and collaboration to minimise the risks of emerging and transmitting zoonotic pathogens, the spillover risks at human, animal and ecosystem interfaces; to step up the governance and supervision of antibiotic use and curb the antimicrobial resistance (AMR); and to strengthen the control and management of environmental factors that have human’s health impacts.

It builds on the One Health Partnership 2016-2020 which was inherited and developed from the previous Partnership for Avian and Human Influenza (PAHI). PAHI was established in 2006 with 26 national and international signatories to the Partnership Framework with the aim of supporting coordination of national and international efforts in Vietnam within the framework of the National Integrated Operational Program on Avian and Human Influenza (OPI), 2006-2010, and then extended for a further five-year period to support the National Integrated Operational Program on Avian Influenza, Pandemic Preparedness and Emerging Infectious Disease (AIPED), 2011-2015.

This is an important milestone for One Health in Vietnam, especially in the global context of the COVID-19 pandemic.