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USAID Position Statement on One Health
Recognizing the increasing number and growing complexity of global threats and the need for transdisciplinarity, USAID endorses systems thinking to advance the One Health approach throughout the Agency by adhering to the following guiding principles. This statement was signed by Administrator Power on March 1, 2024.
Guiding Principles:
- Acknowledge that a One Health approach is a cornerstone of USAID’s Mission, and that synergistically promoting the health of ecosystems, people, and animals supports USAID’s and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals;
- Ensure we operate in a transdisciplinary, collaborative manner, both internally and externally, capitalizing on the Agency’s vast technical depth and diversity to strengthen global resilience;
- Promote equity and inclusivity in One Health communications and coordination to better serve Missions, beneficiaries, implementing partners, and staff;
- Synergize objectives, learning, and actions across sectors in both development and humanitarian programming for more evidence-based, sustainable, and effective outcomes;
- Encourage constructive cross-sectoral dialogue to find creative solutions, beginning with the end in mind; and
- Recognize and assign monetary value to the robust natural resource base in sustainably meeting food, water, and livelihood needs and supporting healthy, resilient communities that are better able to withstand shocks and stresses.
Operational Actions:
- Leverage the transdisciplinary expertise of the Agency’s One Health Working Group to provide cross-sectoral solutions to complex One Health challenges;
- Promote and support systems-wide, locally led, holistic, risk-and evidence-based approaches to addressing global threats, taking into account the complexities of sociobehavioral change, markets and value chains, food and water insecurity, and global governance;
- Adaptively manage our programs based on evidence and results;
- Take advantage of and promote cross-Bureau collaboration and programming mechanisms to strengthen and build coherence around the humanitarian-development-peace nexus;
- Seek to blend program resourcing creatively across disciplines to move beyond siloed resource challenges that limit application of One Health solutions; and
- Intentionally integrate, as appropriate, One Health into Agency-wide policy, strategy, and framework documents to institutionalize One Health throughout USAID.
