Working session. Picture © A. Ripani (oie) 2018.
The OIE and WHO organised the National Bridging Workshop (NBW) in Rabat, Morocco, from 22 to 26 January 2018 convening together about 50 participants coming from medical and veterinary sectors (from regional to central levels). The workshop was officially opened by the Director of the Department of epidemiology and diseases control of Ministries of Health of Morocco and by the Chief Veterinary Officer (OIE Delegate of Morocco) from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Representatives from WHO and OIE also addressed the opening speech during the official opening.
WHO and OIE have developed the NBW with a specific methodology that enable countries to further explore possible overlapping areas in the framework of ‘One Health’. A structured approach using user-friendly material, case studies and group exercises enables the identification of synergies, review of gaps and the definition of operational strategies to be used by policy makers for concerted corrective measures and strategic investments in national action plans for improved health security. Therefore, the main objective of the NBW is to provide an opportunity to human and animal health services of hosting countries to review their current collaboration gaps in key technical areas and to develop a joint road-map of corrective measures and strategic investments to improve the work at the animal-human interface in the prevention, detection and control of zoonotic diseases.
This workshop is based and supported by the different tools elaborated by OIE and WHO. The OIE has developed the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway, which is designed to assist VS to establish their current level of performance, to identify gaps and weaknesses in their ability to comply with OIE international standards. Various assessment and monitoring tools have been also developed by WHO within the framework of International Health Regulations (IHR) such as the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) Tool. The use of WHO IHR monitoring tools and OIE PVS Pathway would result in a detailed assessment of the existing forces and gaps, with better alignment of capacity building approach and strategies at country level between the human and animal health sectors.
The specific objectives of the workshop in Morocco were as follows:
The workshop was very interactive and productive and the outcomes of this workshop would be used to feed the national action plan of Morocco on health security and develop a national roadmap on ‘One Health’ by identifying surveillance, communication, investigation and response as elements to be strengthened in fighting zoonotic diseases. Joint objectives and activities for the four above-mentioned domains were elaborated by the participants in order to strengthen the collaboration between the animal and human sectors.
All pictures © A. Ripani (oie) 2018.
All pictures © A. Ripani (oie) 2018.
