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Avian Flu: Policy and Process of a Global Reponse

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  • Avian Flu: Policy and Process of a Global Reponse

    Source: http://www.ids.ac.uk/index.cfm?objec...415B220F19DFB6

    Avian Flu: Policy and Process of a Global Reponse

    Four new papers on the political economy of avian flu in Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and Viet Nam have just been published as part of a STEPS-affiliated project, supported by the FAO.

    As participants gather for a major international meeting in Winnipeg , Canada this week to discuss ways forward on the One World; One Health initiative (OWOH), a series of new papers have been published, documenting country-level experiences of avian influenza responses in the disease hot spots of Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.


    The publications are timely because, under the banner of OWOH, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), together with the World Bank and the UN System Influenza Coordinator, UNSIC, have agreed that a better understanding of the global emergence, spread and impact of Emerging Infectious Diseases is urgently needed.

    Because of the complexities of novel disease flare-ups, broad cooperation among disciplines and sectors across the animal-human-ecosystems interface should be put in place, according to the OWOH approach. And it is in Winnipeg this week that an attempt will be made to translate some of this theory into action, with a high priority on hot spots such as the countries researched in the new STEPS Centre papers.

    The authors - Paul Forster, Rachel M. Safman, Tuong Vu and Sophal Ear ? ask how effective the current responses to the threat of HPAI are in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia? They have investigated the politics of policy processes surrounding each country?s response while identifying key actors, networks, narratives and practices of policy to reveal key challenges, obstacles and opportunities for responding to avian flu ? and potentially other global epidemics.

    A number of key themes have emerged across the SE Asia papers including: the importance of a pro-poor and livelihoods approach; the opportunities for learning from local innovation; the challenges of building resilience in response systems; and the broader geopolitics of the response; and the importance of taking into account both local and international political and bureaucratic realities in the implementation of a One World, One Health (OWOH) approach.


    These critical reflections on the current response to the HPAI challenge were discussed at an expert meeting last month - The Political Economy of the Response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Lessons for the One World, One Health Initiative - co-hosted by the STEPS Centre and Chatham House and funded by DFID/the World Bank as part of a STEPS project called Avian flu: The Politics and Policy Processes of a Global Response.

    At the meeting a group of 25 researchers and practitioners - both social and natural scientists - met to review the country-level experiences of HPAI response in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia and draw out more general lessons for the One World, One Health approach, on the basis of a comparative analysis.

    The four new papers, a summary of the February expert meeting and many other materials from this project are available to download online at http://www.steps-centre.org/ourresearch/avianflu.html


    Julia Day, Communications Manager, STEPS Centre
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