Empowering communities to shape national prevention strategies
On the 14th of November, during the 12th INB meeting, Dr. Elsa Léger, Global Science Officer of PREZODE, stressed the importance of incorporating prevention into the legal framework of the future Agreement. In the statement, PREZODE emphasized that “the role of research is crucial in understanding these factors and collaborating with frontline communities”. Capacity building, education, and training can empower communities to prevent disease spillover and increase awareness of equity issues. Equity is key and should be included in the discussions.
“The PREZODE community stresses the importance of incorporating into the legal framework of the future PPR Treaty a strong and pro-active commitment from all stakeholders – governments, academia, civil society, communities, and the private sector to prevent the emergence of zoonotic diseases before they spill over into human populations and not just to contain the spread after the first human cases.
There are concrete steps that governments are already implementing to prevent spillover: identify prevention strategies, quantify the risk of human exposure or improve data interoperability between human and animal Health. As just mentioned with the pandemic fund, member states can get support to implement OH prevention measures. Support can also come from science-based initiatives through research projects, workshops, operationalisation of OH platforms or prevention strategies. This shall also include the establishment of surveillance systems to monitor the factors contributing to the emergence, spillover, and spillback of zoonotic diseases at both national and local levels.
The role of research is crucial in understanding these factors and collaborating with frontline communities. Capacity building, education and training can empower communities to prevent disease spillover and raise awareness on equity issues as it has previously been emphasized. Equity is key here and should definitely be included in the discussions. Empowering communities would significantly shape national prevention strategies through a One Health approach. Such strategies should be tailored to each country, purpose-fit, and considerate of the specific constraints these countries face and the knowledge their communities provide.”