NEWS IN BRIEF QI/2018

1. Highlighted Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) activities in the first Quarter of 2018:

The meeting “Accelerating progress on the Real-Time Bio-Surveillance Action

Package of GHSA” was held on March 26-28, 2018 in Tbilisi, Georgia with the purposes of (i) Strengthening partnerships with GHSA partner/contributing countries on the Real-Time Surveillance; (ii) Strengthening collaboration with non-governmental organizations and international partners, and exchanging best practices and sharing experiences; (iii) Promoting collaboration at country and regional levels with other Action Package activities in a crosscutting manner as a sustainable pathway to the overall health security Action Package; (iv) Sustaining surveillance through the provision of funding as a cost-effective investment; and (v) Discussing expectations and the strategy for the Real-Time Surveillance Action Package. 

 Also in this quarter, four one-hour virtual “Town Hall” meetings were hosted by the GHSA Steering Group during the period from 20 to 27 March, in order to discuss the development of the GHSA 2024 framework with GHSA partners. In these meetings, Steering Group members shared updates on the efforts to develop the next phase of GHSA as well as discussed other issues of interest raised by meeting participants. The proposed GHSA 2024 Development Timeline is:

• Mar-Apr, 2018: GHSA community-wide consultation on GHSA 2024.

• Apr 2018: Subgroup completes an update to the GHSA 2024 Framework based on feedback.

• May 2018: SG Meeting – Finalize the GHSA 2024 Framework.

• Summer: GHSA-wide sharing of the finalized GHSA 2024 Framework and TORs ; identify new leadership.

• Fall: Present the GHSA 2024 Framework at the GHSA Ministerial Meeting in Indonesia.

• Nov-Dec, 2018: Transition to the GHSA 2024 structure and objectives.

2. A project on assessing veterinary health management and veterinary drug use in Vietnamese pig farms was launched on 2 March 2018 at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The “Health and Antibiotics in the Vietnamese Pig Production” Project, known as VIDAPIG, is a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, the National Institute of Veterinary Research (NIVR), the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). It will carry out research to identify and evaluate factors affecting veterinary health and veterinary drug use, with the aim of establishing antimicrobial usage practices that are based on a One Health approach across the smallholder pig sector. The project will be implemented from February 2018 to January 2020 in Bac Ninh Province.

3. On 25 March 2018, a One Health Olympic Competition for students wasorganized by the Vietnam One Health University Network (VOHUN) in collaboration with the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA). The aim of this competition was to help students to (i) Understand and share One Health knowledge and skills; (ii) Learn and share information as well as culture among faculties and universities; (iii) Have soft-skills trained after the competition. Professional experts in One Health were also invited to evaluate and encourage students in their One Health understanding and application./.