NEW AVIAN FLU PUBLICATIONS FOCUS ON SE ASIA

By JULIA DAY, STEPS Centre member

As participants gather for the major international meeting in Winnipeg Canada this week to discuss ways forward on the One World, One Health initiative, a series of new papers have been published, documenting country-level experiences of HPAI responses in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia (papers and presentations. Photo credit: Avian flu blood sample / UNSIC.

The papers were discussed at an expert meeting last month – The political economy of the response to highly pathogenic avian influenza: lessons for the One World, One Health initiative – co-hosted by the STEPS Centre and Chatham House and funded by DFID/the World Ban as part of a wider project on avian flu.

A group of 25 researchers and practitioners – both social and natural scientists – met to review the country-level experiences of HPAI response in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia (papers and presentations) and draw out more general lessons for the One World, One Health approach, on the basis of a comparative analysis.

A number of key themes were highlighted, including the importance of a pro-poor and livelihoods approach; the opportunities for learning from local innovation; the challenges of building resilience in response systems; and the broader geopolitics of the response – and the importance of taking into account both local and international political and bureaucratic realities in the implementation of a One World, One Health approach.

A meeting report summary was prepared which has fed into the major international meeting in Winnipeg in March 2009 and a subsequent high level discussion on governance arrangements to be convened by Chatham House, London in collaboration with the STEPS Centre.