Ulrich Laaser, Richard Seifman, Oneness in One Health. South Eastern European Journal of Public

Health 2023. Posted: 09-04-2023, Vol. XX, DOI: https://doi.org/10.56801/seejph.vi.365

Page 1

EDITORIAL

Oneness in One Health

Ulrich Laaser1, Richard Seifman2

1Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bielefeld, Germany
2Board Member, United Nations Association, Capital Area Washington DC, USA

Corresponding Author: Professor Dr, med. Ulrich Laaser, DTM&H, MPH,

Address: University of Bielefeld, School of Public Health, POB 10 01 31, D 33501 Bielefeld,

Germany

Email: ulrich.laaser@uni-bielefeld.de

Ulrich Laaser, Richard Seifman, Oneness in One Health. South Eastern European Journal of Public

Health 2023. Posted: 09-04-2023, Vol. XX, DOI: https://doi.org/10.56801/seejph.vi.365

Page 2

BACKGROUND

The health of populations everywhere is

determined by the interplay between society

and the environment, regulated by a moral

value system. The role of scientific

exploration, research, and the results, is to

shape the scope for potentially effective

action, providing a context for political

leaders to find ways to implement it. The

scope is far broader than the human medical

domain, embracing health sciences,

veterinary science, social sciences,

environmental science, and indeed virtually

all sectors. The critical value proposition for

such endeavours must be the extent to which

it is in touch with and contributes to the

ultimate beneficiaries, the community of

people.

This requires a heightened awareness of the

constraints in doing so, broadly reflected in

four areas [1]: Validated public information,

a deficit aggravated by the surge of fake news

and its use of social media; Social deficits in

terms of societal, intergenerational, and

cultural disintegration, the disparities

summarized by the term inequity; Preventive

strategies, reflected in recent experiences

with the COVID -19 pandemic, and newly

emerging Avian Flu outbreaks; and

Regulatory deficits in terms of pursuing top-

down bottom-up approaches, ones depending

governmental mechanisms to listen to and

integrate voices from the community, a

forum for exchange and coordination.

This latter point is critical if we are going to

successfully build our future anchored on the

One Health approach. The “One Health”

concept has been known for more than a

century; namely that human, animal, and

plant health are interdependent and bound to

the health of the ecosystems in which they

exist. The vision is to engage a collaborative,

whole-of-society, whole-of-government

approach to understand, anticipate, and

address risks to global health.

There are some promising signs that this

concept is gaining traction. Four international

organizations [2] -WHO, FAO, WOAH, and

UNEP, now known as “The Quadripartite”,

established the One Health High-Level

Expert Panel (OHHLEP), and agreed on an

operational definition of One Health, a

heretofore major impediment. Very recently

their leaders jointly announced a “Call for

Action” with seven key elements, briefly:

International prioritization of One Health;

Strengthening of national, regional, and

intersectoral engagement; Strengthening of

One Health monitoring and intersectoral

workforces; Strengthening prevention of

Ulrich Laaser, Richard Seifman, Oneness in One Health. South Eastern European Journal of Public

Health 2023. Posted: 09-04-2023, Vol. XX, DOI: https://doi.org/10.56801/seejph.vi.365

Page 3

pandemics at source; Encouragement of One

Health scientific knowledge; and increasing

investment in One Health strategies. Also,

there are now operational frameworks for

guiding countries and communities to apply

One Health concepts and a newly created

“Pandemic Fund” by WHO and the World

Bank to address prevention, preparedness,

and response, which encompasses One

Health. Further, the World One Health

Congress in November 2022 in Singapore

was a major event that embraced a wide range

of matters, including the need to emphasize

down-top approaches and the need for better

communication between scientists,

policymakers, and communities.

These certainly are promising developments,

especially if “prevention” is given its proper

attention [3]. But the acid test will be if the

full range of One Health concerns are

embraced as concrete measures by national

legislatures, and communities, whether the

private sector can create partnerships with the

public, academia, research institutes, and

non-governmental entities to translate words

into action.

ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN

Wording coined in the early 2010s on the

state of Global Health [4] applies well to the

paradigm of One Health, namely that “Soft

Global Health Governance” is based on

meetings and declarations, dominated by

veterinarians, and characterized by a high

degree of reductionism and fragmentation.

In November 2022a collaborative effort

produced a pilot study on the challenges of

the global One Health movement [5]. It

examined a relatively small, stratified sample

of fifty organizations selected from the

websites of the One Health Commission and

the One Health Initiative. The study showed

serious deficits in terms of fragmentation and

lack of coordination, therefore limitations of

the desired impact, relevant especially to

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) – one of

the three groupings investigated, along with

academic organizations, and

administrative/governmental organizations.

An indicator of the marginal role health-

related civil society organizations (CSOs) or

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

play concerning global public sector

organizations is in the official websites of the

United Nations and the Council of Europe.

Modern and integrative terms such as

“Global Health, Public Health, One Health,

Planetary Health, and Environmental Health”

appear in the names of accredited

CSOs/NGOs only in 1.3% respectively 0.7%.

Ulrich Laaser, Richard Seifman, Oneness in One Health. South Eastern European Journal of Public

Health 2023. Posted: 09-04-2023, Vol. XX, DOI: https://doi.org/10.56801/seejph.vi.365

Page 4

Even in a very broad definition of relevant

terms Health, Medicine, and Environment,

only 4.4% populate the United Nations list,

however, 24.6% at the Council of Europe list

(almost three quarters contributed by the term

“Environment”). On the website of the One

Health Commission (OHC) of the total of

listed organizations, 180 contain in their title

the term One Health, whilst there are only

two on UN and CoE servers.

CONCLUSION

The current economic, social, and

environmental trajectories at the global scale

and within most regions of the world, follow

an unsustainable development path. Without

being more effectively integrated by bottom-

up initiatives, better coordinated, and

accompanied by well-crafted and relevant

science, governments will not move. If we

fail to see the broader vision encompassed by

the One Health concept, we will be destined

to miss an opportunity to better human,

animal, plant, and ecosystem well-being. Our

future is in our collective hands: Let’s hope

that we grasp and grab the chance: Oneness

in One Health!

Civil Society / Non-Governmental

Organizations containing a selection of

related health terms in their name (I) in

consultative status with the United Nations

and (II) in participatory status with the

Council of Europe.

I. The United Nations list 6343 organizations

with consultative status at:

https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/displayCon

sultativeStatusSearch.do?method=search

II. The Council of Europe list 301

International Non-Governmental

Organizations ( INGOs)with participatory

status (Conference of INGOs) at: https://coe-

ngo.org/#/ingos

Search A United

Nations

N=6343

Council

of Europe

N=301

Global Health 9 0

Public Health 7 2

One Health 2 0

Planetary * 4 0

Environmental * 61 0

TOTAL 83 (1.3%) 2 (0.7%)

Search B

Health 133 19

Medicine 17 1

Environment 128 54

Total 278

(4.4%)

(24.6%)

* The addition “Health” is omitted to

generate >1 mention.

https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/displayConsultativeStatusSearch.do?method=search
https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/displayConsultativeStatusSearch.do?method=search
https://coe-ngo.org/#/ingos
https://coe-ngo.org/#/ingos

Ulrich Laaser, Richard Seifman, Oneness in One Health. South Eastern European Journal of Public

Health 2023. Posted: 09-04-2023, Vol. XX, DOI: https://doi.org/10.56801/seejph.vi.365

Page 5

References

1. Laaser U. The interdependence of
society, environment, and health, and

its relevance for societal development.

EURAS Journal of Health (EJOH) Vol.

1, December 2020; DOI:

10.17932/ejoh.2020.022/ejoh_v01i100

2. Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO), United

Nations Environment Programme

(UNEP), World Health Organization

(WHO), and World Organisation for

Animal Health (WOAH), the

Quadripartite: Call to action for One

Health for a safer world.

https://www.woah.org/en/quadripartite

-call-to-action-for-one-health-for-a-

safer-

world/?fbclid=IwAR0XYjr_JagX2vtSj

The Trajectories have Met

By Ulrich Laaser

Blackish purple

A ribbon of clouds

Drenched in blood -

Between the horizons

The edges darken

Ashes of our

Existence

Lost we’ve learned

In hellish Courts

Where from we are

An extraneous God

His face unmoved

Presides as Chair -

His angels far

Did ever he

Sent them to us

My tears are blown in the wind

Under the sand

Astral rocks

half-hidden

Die Trends haben sich getroffen

By Ulrich Laaser

Tiefrot

Ein Wolkenband

Getränkt mit Blut -

Quer zwischen den Horizonten

Die Ränder verdunkelt

Asche unserer

Existenz

Verloren haben wir erfahren

In Hoellen des Gerichts

Woher wir sind

Ein fremder Gott

Unbewegten Gesichts

Uebernahm den Vorsitz -

Seine Engel fern

Hat er sie je

Zu uns geschickt

Meine Tränen verweht im Wind

Halbverborgen im Sand

Sternengestein

Ulrich Laaser, Richard Seifman, Oneness in One Health. South Eastern European Journal of Public

Health 2023. Posted: 09-04-2023, Vol. XX, DOI: https://doi.org/10.56801/seejph.vi.365

Page 6

D0iyOgBIEcIO7jNRiSHb-

S43ccAOCHC-eM-DZiTtKM

3. Seifman R. We Need One Health
Prevention Approaches to Infectious

Disease. The Impacter 2023 at:

https://impakter.com/need-one-health-

prevention-infectious-disease/

4. Leboeuf A. Making Sense of One
Health, Cooperating at the Human-

Animal-Ecosystem Health interface.

Health and Environment Reports No. 7

/2011. Paris: Institut Francais de

relations internationals (IFRI).

5. Laaser U, Stroud C, Bjegovic-
Mikanovic V, Wenzel H, Seifman R,

Craig C, Kaplan B, Kahn L, &

Roopnarine R. (2022). Exchange and

coordination: challenges of the global

one health movement. South Eastern

European Journal of Public Health, 11–

40. Retrieved from

https://www.seejph.com/index.php/see

jph/article/view/337

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