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The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic threatens global health thereby causing unprecedented social, economic, and political disruptions. One way to prevent such a pandemic is through interventions at the human-animal-environment interface by using an integrated One Health (OH) approach. This systematic literature review documented the three coronavirus outbreaks, i.e. SARS, MERS, COVID-19, to evaluate the evolution of the OH approach, including the identification of key OH actions taken for prevention, response, and control.
The OH understandings identified were categorized into three distinct patterns: institutional coordination and collaboration, OH in action/implementation, and extended OH (i.e. a clear involvement of the environmental domain). Across all studies, OH was most often framed as OH in action/implementation and least often in its extended meaning. Utilizing OH as institutional coordination and collaboration and the extended OH both increased over time. OH actions were classified into twelve sub-groups and further categorized as classical OH actions (i.e. at the human-animal interface), classical OH actions with outcomes to the environment, and extended OH actions.
The majority of studies focused on human-animal interaction, giving less attention to the natural and built environment. Different understandings of the OH approach in practice and several practical limitations might hinder current efforts to achieve the operationalization of OH by combining institutional coordination and collaboration with specific OH actions. The actions identified here are a valuable starting point for evaluating the stage of OH development in different settings. This study showed that by moving beyond the classical OH approach and its actions towards a more extended understanding, OH can unfold its entire capacity thereby improving preparedness and mitigating the impacts of the next outbreak.
Research-Practice-Collaborations Addressing One Health and Urban Transformation. A Case Study
(2022)
One Health is an integrative approach at the interface of humans, animals and the environment, which can be implemented as Research-Practice-Collaboration (RPC) for its interdisciplinarity and intersectoral focus on the co-production of knowledge. To exemplify this, the present commentary shows the example of the Forschungskolleg “One Health and Urban Transformation” funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State Government of Nord Rhine Westphalia in Germany. After analysis, the factors identified for a better implementation of RPC for One Health were the ones that allowed for constant communication and the reduction of power asymmetries between practitioners and academics in the co-production of knowledge. In this light, the training of a new generation of scientists at the boundaries of different disciplines that have mediation skills between academia and practice is an important contribution with great implications for societal change that can aid the further development of RPC.
In the last two decades, studies that analyse the political economy of sustainable energy transitions have increasingly become available. Yet very few attempts have been made to synthesize the factors discussed in the growing literature. This paper reviews the extant empirical literature on the political economy of sustainable energy transitions. Using a well-defined search strategy, a total of 36 empirical contributions covering the period 2008 to 2022 are reviewed full text. Overall, the findings highlight the role of vested interest, advocacy coalitions and green constituencies, path dependency, external shocks, policy and institutional environment, political institutions and fossil fuel resource endowments as major political economy factors influencing sustainable energy transitions across both high income countries, and low and middle income countries. In addition, the paper highlights and discusses some critical knowledge gaps in the existing literature and provides suggestions for a future research agenda.
Background:
Access to electricity is one of the enabling factors for healthcare service provision. From the sustainable development perspective, an essential requirement for improving health and caring for our environment is to assure that health facilities have sufficient and reliable access to the supply of clean and sustainable energy. The objective of this work is to investigate the users’ perceptions of electricity needs and electricity sources and the way those influence different attributes and their relevance for the diffusion of renewable electricity systems in healthcare facilities.
Methods:
To identify preferences and choices, Stated Choice modelling was applied as the use of solar PV systems in health facilities is not widespread in Ghana. This method allows to present the respondents with hypothetical options, which have attributes close to the real world. Four attributes were considered, namely electricity system configuration, initial investment cost, monthly costs, and improvements to the reliability of the electricity supply.
Results:
The largest share of the 200 health facilities interviewed reported services provision as outpatient treatment, provision of maternity services and family planning, which are relatively low electricity-intensive services. However, there was a general perception that increased reliability on the electricity supply can improve the health service provision and operation of the facilities. Moreover, despite that preferences towards the solar systems, the initial investment costs of the solar systems is still perceived as preventing the adoption of this technology
Conclusion:
From this study we can conclude that health facilities in Ghana rely greatly on the national supply which has issues with reliability, compromising the delivery of healthcare services. However, the adoption of alternative electricity technologies based on renewable sources is not likely to occur at the facility level without the engagement of other actors that can help bridging the barriers for adoption, as initial investment costs.
Intersectoral collaborations are an integral component of the prevention and control of diseases in a complex health system. On the one hand, One Health (OH) is promoting the establishment of intersectoral collaborations for prevention at the human-animal-environment interface. On the other hand, operationalising OH can only be realized through intersectoral collaborations.
This work contributes to broadening the knowledge of the process for operationalising OH by analysing the governance structures behind different initiatives that tackle health problems at the human-animal-environment interface. The cases taken as examples for the analysis are the control and response to rabies and avian influenza under “classical OH”, and the management of floods and droughts for insights into “extended OH”. Data from Ghana and India were collected and compared to identify the key elements that enable ISC for OH.
Despite the case studies being heterogeneous in terms of their geographic, economic, social, cultural, and historical contexts, strong similarities were identified on how intersectoral collaborations in OH were initiated, managed, and taken to scale.
The actions documented for rabies prevention and control were historically based on one sector being the leader and implementer of activities, while avian influenza management relied more on intersectoral collaborations with clearly defined sectoral responsibilities. The management of the impact of flood and droughts on health provided a good example of intersectoral collaborations achieved by sectoral integration; however, the human health component was only involved in the response stage in the case of Ghana, while for India, there were broader schemes of intersectoral collaborations for prevention, adaptation, and response concerning climate change and disaster.