Experts examine how food safety technical working groups can support national One Health coordination

National One Health platforms help coordinate efforts to address issues that affect human, animal and environment health.

Technical working groups are key to implementing the platforms’ activities, but the best ways to form and support these groups are not well understood.

A recent study published in One Health Outlook by scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute examined how technical working groups for food safety – a complex issue requiring cross-sector collaboration – were established in Ethiopia and Vietnam.

The study aimed to identify effective strategies for creating and sustaining these groups. Several key insights emerged from the study.

First, financial and technical support from development partners was crucial in the early stages to help start and run these groups. This support drives the formation and operationalization of the groups.

Second, a substantial challenge was the lack of legal frameworks to ensure government commitment. Integrating these technical working groups into national processes, such as One Health platforms, can help ensure that evidence is not only kept by development partners and researchers but is also turned into policy and practice to improve food safety.

In Vietnam, this integration was accomplished by reorganizing an existing group within the national One Health platform. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, a new group was established directly under the national One Health platform.

Finally, it is important to continue documenting the successes of these technical working groups to capture the value they add, including how multi-sectoral coordination has influenced food safety policies and practices.

National ownership of these groups plays a critical role in achieving and sustaining these successes.

These experiences from Ethiopia and Vietnam could be useful for other countries in establishing technical working groups to address One Health challenges through coordinated efforts.

Citation
Lam, S., Sinh Dang-Xuan, Bekele, M., Amenu, K., Alonso, S., Unger, F. and Hung Nguyen-Viet. 2024. How do food safety technical working groups within a One Health framework work? Experiences from Vietnam and Ethiopia. One Health Outlook 6: 16.

Photo: Women working in the advanced animal health laboratories of ILRI, in Nairobi, Kenya (ILRI/David White)