In the lead-up to the Southern and Eastern Africa One Health Conference 2025 (11-12 December 2025, Lusaka), the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) is playing a pivotal role. The following interview with Prof. Roma Chilengi, Director General at ZNPHI, explores Zambia’s One Health leadership, how national action links to regional momentum, and what delegates might expect to see emerge from the conference.
For readers who may be new to the concept, what exactly is One Health and why is it especially important for Zambia?
One Health is an approach that looks at the health of people, animals, and the environment as inseparable elements. When livestock, wildlife, or the environment are under pressure, human health will eventually feel the impact.
For Zambia, agriculture is central to our economy, and most of our people depend on animals and the land for food and income. Diseases such as anthrax and rabies, which can spread between animals and humans, are a significant threat in rural areas. Misuse of antibiotics in people or livestock can fuel antimicrobial resistance, making common infections harder and more expensive to treat.
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This is why Zambia has adopted a National One Health Strategic Plan 2022–2026 to guide how sectors work together at the human, animal, environment interface. In practice, that means joint emergency teams, shared information and more targeted prevention, protecting families, safeguarding livelihoods, and strengthening our health system for the future.
From your perspective, why should governments in Eastern and Southern Africa be putting One Health at the top of their agendas right now?
Governments in our region should prioritize One Health because it is one of the most cost-effective ways to protect people’s lives, farmers’ livelihoods, the environment, and national economies. Most of the major health threats we face in Eastern and Southern Africa sit at the intersection of human, animal and environmental health, including zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food-borne infections, and climate-linked outbreaks. These challenges also transcend national borders, threatening our regional trade routes and shared ecosystems. So, it makes sense for us to come together and build socio-economic resilience across our region by applying a One Health approach to these threats.
We also know the pressure on governments is increasing. Africa CDC recently reported that external health aid to the continent has dropped by nearly 70% since 2021, while disease outbreaks rose by more than 40% between 2022 and 2024. In other words, countries are working to do more with fewer external resources. A One Health approach helps prevent outbreaks earlier, cutting duplication between ministries, and protecting trade and food systems. Over time, this saves money and builds a more resilient foundation for health, agriculture, and the wider economy.
The One Health Conference is being positioned as a major regional moment. What is the main objective of the meeting, and what outcomes should we expect?
The main objective of the Regional One Health Conference for Eastern and Southern Africa in Lusaka is to unite countries and sectors under a shared One Health vision. Countries in this region are facing health threats that sit at the crossroads of people, animals and the environment – from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance to food safety risks and climate-related shocks – which cannot be solved by the health sector alone.
Over two days, ministers of health, agriculture and environment will sit together with technical experts, youth leaders, civil society and the private sector to agree on how they will work differently in the future. A key outcome will be a Regional One Health Joint Call to Actionthat sets out how countries will coordinate surveillance, emergency response and investments across sectors.
Equally important, Lusaka will be a place to show and scale what already works through an Innovation Marketplace and “Stories of Impact” sessions, so that practical solutions from across the region can be adapted and expanded, rather than each country working in isolation.
How is Zambia embedding One Health, and what progress has been made so far?
Zambia has been actively embedding a One Health approach since the foundation of the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) in 2020.The NPHI is mandated to lead disease surveillance, emergency preparedness and response, laboratory networks, health information systems, workforce development and public-health research, all of which are core building blocks for One Health implementation.
Building on this foundation, The Government of Zambia has endorsed our first National One Health Strategic Plan 2022–2026, jointly led by the Ministries of Health, Fisheries and Livestock, and Green Economy and Environment. The plan sets clear priorities for how human, animal and environmental sectors coordinate, share data and respond together - from governance and surveillance to preparedness, advocacy, training and research at the human, animal, environment interface. This plan has further been operationalized through creation of multisectoral One Health technical working groups in all 10 provinces of Zambia.
At the same time, by hosting the Eastern and Southern Africa One Health Conference in Lusaka and partnering with regional initiatives such as COHESA, Zambia is helping to translate this experience into shared systems, skills and investments that can benefit the whole SADC region.
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Can you talk a bit about the conference partners and what role they have in advancing One Health in Southern and Eastern Africa?
The conference brings together several institutions that each hold a piece of the One Health puzzle. Hosted by the Government of Zambia, we are working closely with the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the World Bank, and the Quadripartite (WHO, FAO, WOAH and UNEP).
SADC’s role is to turn in-country efforts into a shared regional plan. Through its emerging Regional One Health Roadmap, SADC helps member states coordinate surveillance, align standards on issues like food safety and animal health, and cooperate on cross-border threats that no country can manage alone. This regional framing is essential in a bloc where trade, ecosystems, and population movements are tightly interlinked.
Partners like the World Bank and the Quadripartite provide a global backbone. Through the One Health Joint Plan of Action 2022–2026, countries in Southern and Eastern Africa have access to technical guidance, tools and routes to funding and support to tackle zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance and environmental threats in an integrated way.
In Lusaka, the conference is where these roles come together in practice, aligning political leadership, regional policy and global expertise around a single, concrete agenda for One Health in the region.
