Fifty health professionals are benefiting from the One Health Operationalization course by The Ghana German West Africa Centre for Global Health Pandemic Prevention (G-WAC).

The course aims at providing practical orientation to current efforts to address the interplay between humans, animals and the shared environment for one health in the African context and similar settings.

“We’re providing participants with the tools or one health lens to view pandemic preparedness and response mechanism,” course coordinator, Dr. Daniel Opoku said.

Participants for the 5-day in-person workshop include health researchers, policy-makers and practitioners from Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon.

Speaking at the event, the Director of G-WAC, Dr. John Amuasi noted the dynamics in the one health space requires modern approaches.

“Things have changed so fast in one health during COVID and post-COVID. Unfortunately, many are stacked in the traditional silo of health looking at the three intersections.

“In this course, we’ll expose you to history and also tell you where one health is heading and help you to keep your eyes on the ball so you can follow the trajectory and move with the times,” he said.

A scientific coordinator of G-WAC with the Institute of Virology, Germany, Dr. Philip El-Duah highlighted the importance of the global north and south interaction for a broad understanding of one health.

“There are different perspectives from different parts of the world from the global south and the global north. So, this course brings together expertise from both sides to guide people on this important concept one health,” he said.

The course is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funding from the budget of the Federal Foreign Office.