GRF One Health Summit 2012, Davos: Presentation by Dr. Stefan Seebacher - Head of Health Department - International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies IFRC

1. GRF - One
GRF–One
Health
The relevance of One Health
to Red Cross Red Crescent
health programming
GRF One Health Summit - Davos
Dr. Stefan Seebacher
Head of Health Department – IFRC
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

2. GRF - One Introduction
Health
 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent societies (IFRC) participation at the
Global Risk Forum aims at promoting the
complementarity of “--One Health” and “the
holistic health approach”, currently being further
developed by our health team.
 The holistic health approach is an approach to
better address the increasing health challenges.
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

3. GRF - One
IFRC holistic health approach:
Health levels of vulnerabilities
 Various are the factors that lead to Individual Global
people’s vulnerabilities:
physical, biological, chemical and social
interactions have a role to play in
people’s health.
 It’s only by tackling the multiple
elements involved in health that we will
be able to improve people’s global
wellbeing.
 The human vulnerabilities can only be
minimized in the long term through a Community
cross-sectoral approach and this is true National
from the individual to the global level.
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

4. GRF - One
Scaling-up the community-based
Health health workforce
 IFRC is capable of rapidly mobilizing the
187 national Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies in emergency situation which are
able to reach out on a large scale to local
communities through branch networks and
a large community volunteer force .
 The “community-based health workforce* “
is vital for strengthening resilience. The
force includes health workers, community
based organisations promoting health, and
volunteers such as those 13.1 million
volunteers affiliated with the RCRC.
* In 2011 we issued a joint statement on “Scaling up the community-
based health workforce ” in cooperation with WHO, UNICEF,
UNHCR and the Global Health Workforce alliance
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

5. GRF - One Global change, global health
Health
IFRC constantly draws attention to
climate change, urbanisation,
migrations that lead to a surge of
challenges :
IFRC has built its experience to
respond to nuclear accidents thanks to
its participation in the Chernobyl
responses from 1986 on and was able
to support now the Japanese Red
Cross. Nevertheless, we must still
focus more on preparedness and be
able to predict potential dangers.
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

6. GRF - One Global change, global health
Health
Non-communicable diseases (NCD)
and ageing population
Current data indicate that four types of
NCDs make up the largest contribution
to mortality in the majority of low- and
middle-income countries worldwide.
These are: cardiovascular diseases,
cancers, diabetes and chronic
respiratory diseases and they cause an
estimated 35 million premature deaths
each year.
Behavioural change is therefore a critical
expertise needed
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

7. GRF - One Global change, global health
Health
Two examples of how IFRC has tackled the
pandemic threats in a holistic approach:
 From 2006 to 2008, the avian influenza,
preparedness, mitigation and response focused
on prevention, hygiene education and detection of
animal cases.
 Since 2007, IFRC has also been a key partner to
the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (H2P).
Through H2P, 94 RCRC societies implemented
concrete projects with the technical support of
IFRC and all National Societies were reached
through preventive messages and tools. This effort
focused on non-pharmaceutical interventions
and showed that behaviour change is crucial to
stop the spread of infectious diseases.
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

8. GRF - One Global change, global health
Health
 From the programmes, IFRC learned that:
 Preparedness,
 Prevention,
 Planning,
 Partnerships
are key steps for preventing the spread of
infectious diseases
 IFRC continues to support National Societies
to prepare for and respond to pandemics
through a more “whole-of-society” approach
such as the one promoted by Towards a Safer
World initiative
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

9. GRF - One Challenges
Health
 New challenges imply innovations and shift of
mindset for IFRC and the increasing role of
technology.
 IFRC is also increasing its involvement in
operational research and looking for partnership
with academia to address critical questions within
the holistic health approach.
 Strengthening resilience is a process, not a quick
outcome.
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

10. GRF - One Conclusions
Health
A holistic approach at the human-
animal-environment health
interface plays a vital role in
strengthening resilience.
For IFRC, it means engaging more in
a mindset shift, investing in long
term programming and reinforcing
partnerships such as with the “One
Health” actors.
www.ifrc.org
Saving lives, changing minds.

11. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
IFRC
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - Geneva
Dr. Stefan Seebacher, + 41 22 730 4435
Stefan.seebacher@ifrc.org
IFRC
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - Geneva
Vincent Briac, +41 22 7304519
Vincent.briac@ifrc.org