Horn of Africa: One Health Units for Humans, Environment, Animals and Livelihoods

The One Health Units for Humans, Environment, Animals and Livelihoods (HEAL) is a regional project covering the arid/semi-arid parts of the Horn of Africa (HoA), namely Northern Kenya, Somalia and East Ethiopia where pastoralist communities suffer from poor infrastructure, poor service delivery and historical marginalization. The availability, accessibility and compatibility of health services provided to pastoralists and their livestock have been far from sufficient. The poor access to public services across the borders represents a potential public health threat. For e.g., in 2017, more than 131,200 severe cases of cholera were recorded in the 3 countries and 24,500 cases of measles were recorded in Ethiopia and Somalia.

HEAL aims at building the livelihoods and well-being of pastoralist communities through a set of distinct but interlinked outcomes which address the 3 ‘pillars’ of pastoralism, i.e., livestock, people and natural resources. HEAL will seek to improve access to human and veterinary health services, through testing and establishing various options for One Health Units (OHUs) while at the same time building capacity for natural resources management (NRM). OHUs provide health services for humans and livestock as one stop shops facilitating easy access. HEAL will also seek to establish a common vision and define a long term strategy among key actors for the delivery of health services in an integrated manner, addressing humans, animals and the environment. The environmental health component will aspire to balance/sustain the integrity of soil, vegetation, water and air as well as the ecological processes of the rangeland ecosystem.

The One Health approach will support governments and the private sector in testing/proving how service delivery can be diversified and adapted to the needs of communities. Service providers will be capacitated to respond to their constituencies in an equitable manner.

The project will comprise a crisis modifier, combining emergency aid and development in order to respond to the vulnerability of the targeted communities and recurrent natural/manmade disasters in the region. The specific needs of both women and girls as well as of men and boys will be met.

Swiss expertise and network base in One Health are crucial for the promotion of service delivery that works for pastoralists. Through the HEAL project, Switzerland will contribute to a reduced vulnerability and to the Swiss interest of stability in the Horn of Africa. In addition, the proposal aligns itself and builds on already existing SDC financed health programmes and natural resource management initiatives in the region. It is to be implemented by a consortium of three organizations, i.e. Veterinaries Sans Frontieres (VSF-Suisse) (lead), Comitato Collaborazione Medica (CCM) and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). It is planned for 12 years (3 phase), with an additional opening phase of 15 months focusing on preparatory work.