The Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) hosted the Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa (COHESA) workshop last week.

The event was officially opened by Professor Ketlhalogile Mosepele who in his opening speech stated that one of BUAN’s thematic areas of the research intensification pillar is to have increased collaboration with external partners.

He believes that the COHESA project is helping BUAN to achieve that area. Thus, this project has been adopted by the right institution as the world is currently facing unprecedented, interconnected threats to the health of people, animals, and the environment.

Addressing these threats requires cross-sectoral systems-wide approaches. Essentially, One Health unpacks the Agricultural and Natural Resources sphere across its value chain and therefore presents a compelling argument for multidisciplinary research.

The workshop, which was a collaboration between BUAN and COHESA, sought to build capacity of higher educational institutions to educate, train and empower the attendants to tackle One Health issues.

It is also aimed at assisting the 11 COHESA nations to develop One Health curriculum for the next generation workforce from primary to tertiary including Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The workshop consisted of delegates from the World Bank, International Livestock Research Institute, Inter-University Council For East Africa, University of Pretoria, Southern African Region University Association, Cirad, and SADC.

During the three-day workshop, delegates mapped out One

Health Competencies and curriculum development in

Southern

Africa.

COHESA is about ensuring better health in aspects of human existence i.e environment, animal health, food safety and the overall ecosystem.

In Botswana, COHESA is a collaborative effort led by BUAN. Partners include UB (ORI and Faculty of Medicine), Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and the Ministry of Health.

Professor Flora Pule-Meulenburg in her welcome remarks said that the main objective of COHESA is to encourage collaboration amongst different sectors of health in Southern Africa and East Africa. BUAN in the eyes of COHESA is a multiplier as it has an education and research mandate that can build capacity of different service providers.

Meulenburg gave an example of one health as an instance from food safety challenge due to the overuse of pesticides to control pests and disease outbreaks in plants

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