During the fourth edition of the One Health Day celebration in Côte d’Ivoire, on Wednesday 3 November 2021, Dr Adou Djané who is responsible for Community and Policy Engagement in the programme Afrique One-ASPIRE stressed in his contribution that the One Health approach allows the pooling of efforts for effective action. The event was held at the Faculty of Medicine of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny University of Cocody in the presence of a number of scientific personalities, development partners ,policy makers and students.

The theme chosen for this year’s celebration was health security in Côte d’Ivoire depends on available and competent human resources trained in the “One Health” approach.

As one of the four experts invited to inform health professionals, decision makers and the general population about the “One Health”, Dr Adou give a presentation about the contribution of Afrique One-ASPIRE in the promotion of the “One Health” approach on the African continent. He also took the opportunity to share the experiences of Afrique One-ASPIRE in strengthening the capacities of researchers and institutions in charge of the response to COVID-19 and other zoonoses .

These experiences are related to both advisory support to health authorities in particular the establishment of a scientific task force in Côte d’Ivoire in the early stages of the health crisis in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher education and  scientific research in the implementation of  transdisciplinary studies to obtain evidence that can judiciously guide decision-making in ministry of health and community engagement actions. Furthermore, junior and senior researchers of Afrique One-ASPIRE have contributed to raising awareness both in Côte d’Ivoire and across the African continent on the basis of their research results. Moreover, an interdisciplinary team of Afrique One-ASPIRE has conducted a knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) study in Côte d’Ivoire that covered the entire country and allowed to better understand the gaps between the proposed response measures and the KAP of the population. The implementation  of the project  “Living with COVID-19”  by Afrique One-ASPIRE carried out in collaboration with local radio stations in Côte d’Ivoire and communities, was one of the illustrations of the pooling of resources and skills in the fight against COVID-19.

From 02 to 03 December 2021, a web conference will be held about the One Health approach. On this occasion, Afrique One-ASPIRE will share the lessons learned from 12 years of operational research and capacity strengthening in Africa at the CSRS. Participation in this conference is free of charge and people interested are kindly required to register via the following link: www.bit.ly/3mmROLu