The Initiative forms a network to facilitate and strengthen interactions across member organizations. Membership is based on mutual understanding and collaboration principles.
Vision and mission
PREZODE envisions a world where the risk of new zoonotic pandemics is reduced, land management practices are sustainable, and food security, healthy diets, and livelihoods are safeguarded through the coordination of research programmes, the sharing of knowledge, and the deployment of efficient and relevant operational policies.
A shared framework to foster collaboration and impact
PREZODE proposes a scientific framework for conducting research and operational projects, and for developing and coordinating surveillance systems to prevent zoonotic risks, all with the overarching goal of maximizing their impact. To achieve this goal, the initiative is building on joint programmes between members, collaboration with international partners, and securing funding to ensure that the approach is sustainable.
Strengthening Knowledge
PREZODE is developing a collaborative platform to share knowledge from past, current, and future projects, and to capitalize on activities in different regions of the world. It aims to strengthen and integrate knowledge, innovation, capacity building, and operational actions seeking to both reduce risk and rapidly detect the emergence of zoonotic diseases at the national, regional and global levels.
A resource center
PREZODE intends to be a resource centre that provides decision makers with tools and information to enable evidence-based public policies. PREZODE will highlight local examples of ecosystem management strategies to reduce zoonotic emergence risks and encourage economic sustainability. By 2030, PREZODE aims to have reversed the current upward trend of emerging zoonoses through preventive actions designed jointly with all relevant stakeholders.
Core values
When signing the Declaration of Intent, PREZODE members agree to the following:
- Recognize that 75% of emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin and that emerging disease events are accelerating, largely due to human impacts on nature.
- Recognize the complexity of the relationships existing between land use, food systems and environmental, human, and animal health, and specifically the need to unravel the link between biodiversity pressures and emerging infectious diseases.
- Note that preparedness strategies are not primarily designed to prevent pandemics.
- Emphasize the need to mitigate the risks of emergence of zoonotic diseases.
- Emphasize the need to prevent pandemics before they emerge, while ensuring food and nutritional security, adapting to climate change, preserving biodiversity and natural resources, and alleviating poverty.
- Emphasize the need to improve knowledge and to develop reliable tools by involving all interested and concerned stakeholders.
- Recognize the need for efficient early warning systems for detection and rapid actions to respond to the emergence at both the local and global scale.
- Emphasize the need for robust and participatory emergence risk monitoring, supported by research and involving all stakeholders, research and field actors, policy makers, and public society through a “One Health” approach.
- Highlight the role of local communities and all environmental, animal, and human health stakeholders in reducing the risks of infectious disease emergence through their awareness and commitment.
- Call for concerted action and efficient use of existing financial mechanisms and resources to scale up and integrate research, innovation, capacity building and operational actions seeking to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease emergence.
PREZODE Members recognize, each with regard to their missions and mandates,
the need to:
- Develop and promote the application of guidelines that are aligned with Agenda 2030 and support zoonotic disease emergence risk mitigation in order to strengthen public policies, international cooperation, and private sector actions.
- Foster cooperation between and within existing One Health or related initiatives, in particular with the One Health High-Level Expert Panel, and raise awareness concerning the importance of the One Health approach.
- Encourage the launch of research, innovation, education, and development programmes to improve and more effectively share knowledge about the risks of the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases, and on surveillance and mitigation actions.
- Capitalize on feedback from the management of previous epidemic events to strengthen new preparedness protocols.
- Assess ex-ante the impacts of agricultural, land use, and infrastructure development projects on the risks of disease emergence for humans, livestock, and wildlife.
- Develop prevention strategies with stakeholders, in particular local communities, and decision makers through a bottom-up approach.
- Promote sustainable agriculture, food systems, and landscape management that respect the One Health approach and contribute to strengthening biodiversity.
- Improve systems for the monitoring and early assessment of threats at the human-wildlife-environmental interface.
- Support participatory approaches to ensure the empowerment of communities in developing innovative solutions and their adoption for the benefit of all.
- Ensure the sustainability of actions, in particular through long-term capacity building with the instruction of trainers and education programmes.
- Share our projects, actions, experiences, and results through a common platform, and organize regular meetings for discussion and capitalization with the support of the international scientific community.
- Promote best practices in public-private partnerships and inter-sectoral collaboration within an integrated One Health approach.