9 March 2022, Buchannan – The National One Health Platform of  Liberia in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) brought together national One Health actors to review the One Health Monitoring Tool (OHMT), an innovative tool that will be used to monitor One Health progress, assess and evaluate its results and its operational readiness at national level. The OHMT has been developed by FAO through the One Health and Biosecurity project  funded by the  Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the United States government. The tool has integrated the inputs received from the Regional Office for Africa of the World Health Organization (WHO/AFRO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE/Africa), Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (AfCDC), and the African Union InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR). Its aim is to increase levels of transparency and support country accountability so that countries are prepared to respond to health threats. In Liberia, FAO organised a two-day workshop to gather information that will be used to improve the OHMT tool before its final review and adoption.

To date, countries do not have any tool that they can use to assess and monitor their One Health progress or to produce accurate data on the implementation of One Health at the national and regional levels. With the pioneering OHMT, all countries, even those without national One Health platforms, will be able to coordinate the sectors involved in health management and establish cooperation among them to monitor One Health progress and assess and evaluate One Health results and their state of implementation.

The Tripartite (FAO, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO)) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are supporting the One Health approach implementation at all levels to ensure that specialists in multiple sectors and disciplines work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing the collective need for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate change, and contributing to sustainable development.

During the opening remarks of the One Health Monitoring Tool pilot workshop, Dr. Ibrahim Gashash Ahmed, Country Team Leader of the FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) emphasized the importance of the OHMT which seeks to strengthen One Health performance in Liberia. 

The Technical Coordinator of the Liberia National One Health Platform, Mr. Sonpon Blamo Sieh, challenged stakeholders to see the OHMT as a means to document the gains made on the implementation of the One Health approach in Liberia.

In representation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Technical Services, Hon. Leelia R. Andrews, called for exerted efforts of all institutions as Liberia continues to expand the One Health approach at national and sub-national levels.

Representatives from the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), reaffirmed their institutional commitment to the operationalization of the One Health approach in Liberia.

FAO One Health Monitoring Tool at global level 
FAO, through ECTAD, in collaboration with the National One Health platform of member countries has conducted OHMT pilot workshops in Cameroon, Ghana and Tanzania that gathered One Health actors to test and review the OHMT. These preliminary country assessments of the OHMT were designed to gather feedback on the tool content, the process to use the tool and its design from relevant sectors and disciplines at all levels of implementation. The feedback collected in this pilot process will be used to improve the OHMT for final review and adoption through a workshop prior to its roll-out.

For further information, please contact:

Emmanuel Kapee

National Consultant

FAO Liberia

Email: [email protected]

Yanira Santana

Emergency reporting and Outreach

Bureau FAO ECTAD Africa

Email : [email protected]