FAO, WHO, WOAH, UNEP – the Quadripartite announces proposed members of its One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP)

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – the Quadripartite – announce proposed members of its One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP).

Deadline: 2 April 2024, 17:00 CET

18 March 2024 | Call for consultation
Public notice & comment

The One Health High-Level Expert Panel is the scientific and strategic advisory group to the Quadripartite organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) – in their collaboration on One Health.

The One Health High Level Expert Panel has provided critical advisory to the Quadripartite in its first term, which concluded on 31st December 2023, and has produced many impactful deliverables which can be found here. 

Following the launch of the One Health Joint Plan of Action and its implementation guide the Quadripartite collaboration has prioritized support to countries in its roll out.  In this regard, the Terms of Reference for OHHLEP were revised and a Call for Experts was issued for Term II with a vision to augment the panel to provide advisory across all action tracks of the OH JPA and utilizing the three pathways to change.

After careful consideration of all applications submitted to the Quadripartite, the following individuals are proposed for membership of the Quadripartite One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP).

The 30 proposed OHHLEP members have expertise in a range of areas including, but not limited to the following:

Intersectoral governance and systems approaches, political science, international law; economics and finance; social and behavioural sciences, anthropology, ethics and gender studies; health systems policy and practice, pandemic prevention and preparedness; environmental, forestry, biodiversity, agriculture, and ecosystem sciences; food systems and their interlinkages with health; emerging pandemic threats, infectious disease epidemiology, informatics, modelling, prediction and foresight relevant to assessing impacts of environmental and other changes in emerging diseases and health.

The composition of the OHHLEP aims to reflect geographic and gender diversity.

There will now be a two-week public consultation period for the Quadripartite to receive feedback on the proposed OHHLEP members and set in place the modalities for the One Health High Level Expert Panel’s first meeting of its second term, which is planned to take place following this consultation period.

The final membership to the OHHLEP is subject to the above-mentioned public consultation period and relevant practices and procedures.

Functions of the One Health High Level Expert Panel

The areas of focus of the OHHLEP will be subject to regular review by the Quadripartite and detailed deliverables will be set out in workplans for each term. The Terms of Reference can be found here.

The One Health High Level Expert Panel will focus on:
1) providing the Quadripartite with guidance on implementation of the One Health Joint Plan of Action by informing the development of evidence-based One Health policies, tools and metrics to support implementation and measurement, and through the identification of One Health research gaps;
2) providing the Quadripartite with policy relevant scientific assessment on the drivers of emergence and re-emergence of health threats at the human-animal-ecosystem interface;
3) providing the Quadripartite with recommendations on specific issues identified by the Quadripartite in the areas of highest concern for attention, action, and future direction in One Health. The advice of the One Health High Level Expert Panel will contribute to enhancing strategic orientations and coordination, and to providing high political visibility, accountability, and actions related to One Health.

The Quadripartite will be finalizing the appointment of the 30 members in the coming days following the review of comments received during their notice period.

The members are to serve in their personal capacities to represent the broad range of disciplines relevant to One Health. In evaluating the applications submitted, consideration was given to attaining an adequate distribution of technical expertise, geographical representation and gender balance.

Proposed One Health members

  • Dr. Yewande Alimi, is the One Health Unit Lead at the Africa Centers for Disease Control, based in Addis Ababa. This expert is from Nigeria.  
  • Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, is the Director of the One Health Office at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This expert is from the United States of America.
  • Dr. Salome Buckachi, is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, at the Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya. This expert is from Kenya.    
  • Gian Luca Burci, is a Senior Visiting Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. This expert is from Italy and Switzerland.  
  • Dr. Natalia Cediel, a Lecturer and researcher at the School of Agricultural Sciences, Universidad de La Salle, Bogotá, Colombia. This expert is from Colombia.  
  • Dr. Dominique Charron, is a Visiting Professor at the One Health Institute, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. This expert is from Canada.  
  • Dr. Rungtip Chuanchuen, is a Professor at the Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. This expert is from Thailand.  
  • Dr. Anna Maria Conte, is the Head of the Statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Unit at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale  dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM) Teramo, Italy. This expert is from Italy.  
  • Dr. Osman Dar is a Consultant in Global Public Health, Global Public Health Operations Division, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, London, United Kingdom, and the Director of the One Health Project at the Center on Universal Health, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London, United Kingdom. This expert is from Pakistan and the United Kingdom.  
  • Dr. Nitish Debnath, is the Team Lead, at the Fleming Fund Country Grant to Bangladesh, DAI Global, Dhaka, Bangladesh.  This expert is from Bangladesh.  
  • Dr. Chris Degeling, is a Principal Fellow at the Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Australia. This expert is from Australia.  
  • Dr. Jing Fang, is a Professor of Medicine at the Institute for Health Sciences, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China. This expert is from China.  
  • Dr. Elmoubasher Farag, is the Head of Communicable Diseases Control Programs at the Ministry of Public Health, Health Protection & Communicable Diseases Division, Doha, Qatar. This expert is from Sudan.  
  • Dr. Ekhlas Hailat, is a Public Health Specialist and One Health and Zoonotic Diseases Specialist, former at the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET). Currently, consultant for Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security for the project Evaluating and Enhancing One Health Capacities through Multisectoral Engagement in Iraq and Jordan. This expert is from Jordan.
  • Dr. David Hayman is a Professor of Infectious Disease Ecology, Massey University, New Zealand. This expert is from New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  
  • Dr. Catherine Machalaba is a Senior Policy Advisor and Senior Scientist at EcoHealth Alliance, United States of America. This expert is from the United States of America.  
  • Dr. Hugo Mantila Manek, is a Professor of Evolution, Sustainable Development and One Health at the Biology Program, Universidad del Quindío, Colombia, and the Founder and Director of the Centro de Estudios de Alta Montaña, a transdiciplinary think-tank working on Environmental Surveillance under the One Health approach. This expert is from Colombia.  
  • Dr. Wanda Markotter is the Director of the Centre for Viral Zoonoses, Department of Medical Virology, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. This expert is from South Africa.  
  • Dr. Thomas Mettenleiter is retired President of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute (FLI), Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany. This expert is from Germany.  
  • Dr. Serge Morand, is the Director of Research, Health DEEP, CNRS, Montpellier University, France, and Faculty of Veterinary Technology, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. This expert is from France.  
  • Dr. Salama Al Muhairi, is the Manager of Research and Development at the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority, United Arab Emirates. This expert is from the United Arab Emirates.  
  • Dr. Carlos Alfonso Rolhas Fernandes Das Neves, is the Chief Scientist of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy. This expert is from Norway and Portugal.
  • Dr Hung Nguyen-Viet, is the Co-Leader of the Animal and Human Health Program  International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya. This expert is from Viet Nam.    
  • Natiela Oliveira is a Specialist in the One Health Technical Group, General Coordination of Surveillance of Zoonosis and Vector-borne Diseases, Department of Communicable Diseases, Ministry of Health, Brazil. This expert is from Brazil.
  • Dr. Aung Kyaw Thu, is the Branch Head (Exposure and Data Science) National Centre for Food Science, Singapore Food Agency and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This expert is from Myanmar and Singapore.    
  • Dr. Abel Wilson Walekewa, is a Senior Epidemiologist at the Science, Technology, and Innovation Secretariat. Office of the President, Kampala, Uganda. This expert is from Uganda.  
  • Dr. Maxine Whittaker, is a Public Health Physician, Medical Anthropologist and Health Systems Researcher and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Vector Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases. This expert is from Australia.
  • Dr. Ryan Williams, is an Associate Professor of Economics & Public Policy and the Assistant Dean, School of Veterinary Medicine, Texas Tech University, USA. This expert is from the United States of America.
  • Dr. Xiao Nong Zhou, is the Director of the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases at Chinese Center of Disease Control and Prevention & Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research / WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropical Diseases, Shanghai, China and the Vice Dean of the School of Global Health and Director of the One Health Center, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. This expert is from China.  
  • Dr. Jakob Zinsstag, is the Deputy Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland. This expert is from Switzerland.

Where the One Health High Level Expert Panel is administratively hosted by WHO, and pursuant to WHO’s rules and practices, and in order to enhance management of conflicts of interest, as well as strengthen public trust and transparency in connection with advisory groups involving the provision of technical advice, the names and brief biographies of the individuals selected for OHHLEP Membership are now disclosed for public notice and comment.

Should you wish to comment on the individuals, please send your comments to [email protected] with subject, “Public comments on OHHLEP members,” by 2 April 2024, 17:00 CET.

The WHO will treat the comments received through this public notice and comment process confidentially. Comments and perceptions brought to the attention of the WHO through this process are an integral component of the conflict of interest assessment policy and will, subject to WHO’s rules, practices, and policies, be carefully reviewed by the WHO. The WHO reserves the right to discuss information received through this process with the relevant expert and otherwise within the Organization as appropriate, with no attribution to the provider of the information. The WHO, may, in its sole discretion, take appropriate action in accordance with its rules, practices, and policies, based on any information received.

Disclaimer:
In order to enhance its management of Conflicts of Interest as well as strengthen public trust and transparency in connection with WHO meetings involving the provision of technical/normative advice, the names and brief biographies of individuals (“Published Information” ) being considered for participation in such meetings are disclosed for public notice and comment.

The Published Information is provided by the experts themselves and is the sole responsibility of the individuals concerned. WHO is not responsible for the accuracy, veracity and completeness of the Published Information provided.  Furthermore, in no event will WHO be responsible or liable for damages in relation to the use of, and reliance upon, the Published Information.

The comments received by WHO through the public notice and comment process are treated confidentially and their receipt will be acknowledged through a generic email notification to the sender. Comments and perceptions brought to the knowledge of WHO through this process are an integral component of WHO’s conflict of interest assessment policy and are carefully reviewed. WHO reserves the right to discuss information received through this process with the relevant expert with no attribution to the provider of such information. Upon review and assessment of the information received through this process, WHO, in its sole discretion, may take appropriate management action in accordance with its policies.  

The participation of an expert in a WHO meeting does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization nor does it create a binding relationship between the expert and WHO.  

The list of participating experts, a summary of relevant interests disclosed by such experts, and any appropriate mitigation measures taken by WHO relating to the management of conflicts of interests, will be reported publicly in accordance with WHO practice.