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Background: National Bridging Workshops (NBW) are a tool for reviewing collaboration gaps between line ministries relevant to the One Health framework. Methods: The NBW for Somalia was held on November 11–13, 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya with support from WHO and WOAH. Participants included representatives from the Somali government both national and sub-national (including Ministry of Health; Ministry of Livestock, Forestry and Range; Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation; and Ministry of Environment and Climate Change). Other participants included representatives from non-governmental organizations, academia and the quadripartite. Structured sessions guided participants through a step-by-step process, starting from identifying gaps to collectively developing solutions. The design of these sessions aimed to foster active engagement and collaboration with the outcomes of each session contributing to the subsequent one. Results: A total of 60 participants partook in the exercise, representing human health (35%), animal health (27%), agriculture (13%), environmental health (7%) and other relevant sectors (18%). Eighty-three percent of participants represented the national level and 17% the sub-national level. The collaborative effort yielded a joint roadmap comprising 36 activities and 11 objectives. Priority objectives included: development of national joint surveillance systems for selected One Health threats (41/47 votes, or 87% of the total votes); establishment of a high-level ministerial system to govern and coordinate One Health activities (30/47; 64%); and establishment of emergency funding structures for priority zoonotic diseases along with development of a 5-year national investment plan for One Health (27/47; 57%). A total of 94% of activities required low or moderate cost to be implemented, and 90% of activities were identified to have a likely high impact on multisectoral collaboration. The timeline for implementing the activities is projected to span one to two years. Conclusion: The workshop promoted high-level engagement, national ownership, and leadership in addressing health threats at the human-animal-environment interface. The resulting co-created roadmap will be integrated into the National Action Plan for Health Security, supporting ongoing One Health efforts in Somalia.

Nigeria, with a population of over 190 million people, is rated among the 10 countries with the highest burden of infectious and zoonotic diseases globally. In Nigeria, there exist a sub-optimal surveillance system to monitor and track priority zoonoses. We therefore conducted a prioritization of zoonotic diseases for the first time in Nigeria to guide prevention and control efforts. Towards this, a two-day in-country consultative meeting involving experts from the human, animal, and environmental health backgrounds prioritized zoonotic diseases using a modified semi-quantitative One Health Zoonotic Disease Prioritization tool in July 2017. Overall, 36 of 52 previously selected zoonoses were identified for prioritization. Five selection criteria were used to arrive at the relative importance of prioritized diseases based on their weighted score. Overall, this zoonotic disease prioritization process marks the first major step of bringing together experts from the human-animal-environment health spectrum in Nigeria. Importantly, the country ranked rabies, avian influenza, Ebola Virus Disease, swine influenza and anthrax as the first five priority zoonoses in Nigeria. Finally, this One Health approach to prioritizing important zoonoses is a step that will help to guide future tracking and monitoring of diseases of grave public health importance in Nigeria.

A One Health (OH) approach that integrates human,animal and environmental approaches to management of zoonotic diseases has gained momentum in the last decadeas part of a strategy to prevent and control emerging infectious diseases. However, there are few examples of howan OH approach can be established in a country. Kenya establishment of an OH office, referred to asthe Zoonotic Disease Unit (ZDU) in 2011. The ZDU bridges theanimal and human health sectors with a senior epidemiologist deployed from each ministry; and agoal of maintaining collaboration at the animal and human health interface towards better prevention and control of zoonoses.The country is adding an ecologist to the ZDU to ensure that environmental risks are adequately addressed in emerging disease control.