21/09/2026
🌍 Meaningful engagement is at the heart of One Health.
At the 9th World One Health Congress 2026 held in Lisbon, Portugal, Prof. Maxine Whittaker, the Advisor and CSO Representative facilitated the workshop entitled 'Meaningful Engagement of People and Communities in One Health Implementation' co-hosted by the Civil Society Platform for Health Equity and Inclusiveness One Health and Climate Change Network and Universidad de La Salle, Columbia.
The workshop was co-hosted by the Civil Society Platform for Health Equity and Inclusiveness One Health and Climate Change Network and Universidad de La Salle, Colombia, and was developed and co-facilitated by Dr. Serge Morand and Prof. Maxine Whittaker, members of the One Health and Climate Change Network, together with Natalia Cediel, Chris Degeling, Salome Bukachi, Dominique Charron, and Ekhlas Hailat.
Bringing together around 50 participants, workshop provided a space to share experiences and develop case studies reflecting on the critical enablers, barriers and lessons learned for meaningful community engagement, GEDSI, Indigenous Knowledge, and social inclusion across diverse contexts—including remote populations, people experiencing poverty, limited education or literacy, older persons, adolescents, migrants and refugees.
Through group discussions and lived experiences, participants developed six case stories from diverse settings, including East Africa, the Sámi Peoples in Norway, First Nations Peoples in Canada, West Africa, nomadic populations in East Africa, homeless youth in Seattle, USA, and agricultural workers in rural Uganda.
Across these stories, several common themes emerged:
🔹 Good communication and coordination with communities and across teams, from inception through evaluation;
🔹 Building community capacity and providing appropriate support for meaningful engagement;
🔹 Understanding and addressing power dynamics, including within households, communities, and between implementers/researchers and communities;
🔹 Investing time and resources in trust and trustworthiness;
🔹 Adequate, reliable and sustained funding and resources;
🔹 Strengthening the competencies of implementation and research teams in participatory approaches, community engagement, GEDSI, and cultural awareness and safety.
These shared experiences remind us that One Health works best when people and communities are not only engaged, but meaningfully heard, valued, and involved throughout the process.
Recap: https://globalohc.org/
