One Health, One Caribbean, One Love ­ Caribbean Leadership, Regional Cooperation, Local Action

ABSTRACT

Inter-sectoral collaboration is extremely limited, both at policy and technical levels, across the Caribbean region. However, many of the priority health problems currently facing the region, like climate change, food security, ocean health, and emerging diseases arise from the interactions between people, animals and our shared environment. If these health issues are to be addressed effectively and efficiently, an intersectoral or One Health approach is clearly required. The European Union funded project "One Health, One Caribbean, One Love" set out to promote and entrench a "One Health" approach to priority health issues affecting humans, animals and the environment within the Caribbean region. The project, which spanned from March 2014 and ended in June 2017, successfully built the capacity of the national veterinary, public health and environmental health services, through the development of a cadre of One Health Leaders, the creation of Caribbean regional and national One Health Networks, and the development of a One Health strategic framework. The One Health Leadership Series developed a core group of One Health Leaders from 12 Caribbean countries. The leaders attended a series of 5 themed One Health Leadership workshops, and each country team developed and conducted a One Health project addressing a national priority health issue at the interface between human, animal and environmental health ­ a learning by doing approach. The One Health leadership series has enabled the leaders to more effectively design and manage One Health policies, programs and projects in order to develop more holistic scientific solutions to emerging health problems.