By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with the World Animal Health Organisation and One Health Platform in Sierra Leone supported the establishment and strengthening of the Joint Risk Assessment (JRA).
30 participants are drawn from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS), the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and Universities representing animal health, public health, environment (including wildlife), food safety, and academia to attend a five-day workshop which will start on 26 August.
In addition, partners including the Tripartite collaboration between FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National One Health Platform also collaborated in the facilitation of this workshop.
In May 2019, regional epidemiologists, and other technical level representatives from WHO, OIE and FAO headquarters, regional, and country level offices came together to be trained on the use of the Joint Risk Assessment (JRA) Operational Tool in a regional training and on how to run pilot workshops throughout the region, African news reports.
As a follow up of this regional JRA training, FAO-ECTAD Sierra Leone has held this training to enable the participants to master and utilize the 10-step JRA process for priority zoonotic diseases in Sierra Leone (rabies and Lassa fever) and to create a system for conducting JRAs in the future.
In addition, the workshop enabled participants to identify targeted risk communication and management options to be implemented at the human-animal-environmental interface for the selected zoonotic disease hazards.
Currently, practical joint approaches, operational tools, and processes to support national multisectoral collaboration for zoonoses have outlined the need for collaboration among these institutions and other stakeholders in order to operationalize One Health approaches at the interface human-animal-environment.
In this context, the Tripartite collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO) and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) will address health risks at the human–animal–environment interface, including developing global strategies and standard tools to ensure a consistent, harmonised approach throughout the world, include operational tools for conducting joint risk assessment (JRA).
