Asaaga et al. BMC Public Health (2021) 21:1517 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11545-7 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Operationalising the “One Health” approach in India: facilitators of and barriers to effective cross-sector convergence for zoonoses prevention and control F. A. Asaaga1* , J. C. Young2,3, M. A. Oommen4, R. Chandarana4, J. August5, J. Joshi6, M. M. Chanda7, A. T. Vanak4,8,9, P. N. Srinivas10, S. L. Hoti11, T. Seshadri3 and B. V. Purse1 Abstract Background: There is a strong policy impetus for the One Health cross-sectoral approach to address the complex challenge of zoonotic diseases, particularly in low/lower middle income countries (LMICs). Yet the implementation of this approach in LMIC contexts such as India has proven challenging, due partly to the relatively limited practical guidance and understanding on how to foster and sustain cross-sector collaborations. This study addresses this gap by exploring the facilitators of and barriers to successful convergence between the human, animal and environmental health sectors in India. Methods: A mixed methods study was conducted using a detailed content review of national policy documents and in-depth semi-structured interview data on zoonotic disease management in India. In total, 29 policy documents were reviewed and 15 key informant interviews were undertaken with national and state level policymakers, disease managers and experts operating within the human-animal-environment interface of zoonotic disease control. Results: Our findings suggest that there is limited policy visibility of zoonotic diseases, although global zoonoses, especially those identified to be of pandemic potential by international organisations (e.g. CDC, WHO and OIE) rather than local, high burden endemic diseases, have high recognition in the existing policy agenda setting. Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration, a myriad of factors operated to either constrain or facilitate the success of cross-sectoral convergence at different stages (i.e. information-sharing, undertaking common activities and merging resources and infrastructure) of cross-sectoral action. Importantly, participants identified the lack of supportive policies, conflicting departmental priorities and limited institutional capacities as major barriers that hamper effective cross-sectoral collaboration on zoonotic disease control. Building on existing informal inter-personal relationships and collaboration platforms were suggested by participants as the way forward. * Correspondence: [email protected] 1UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Asaaga et al. BMC Public Health (2021) 21:1517 Page 2 of 21 Conclusion: Our findings point to the importance of strengthening existing national policy frameworks as a first step for leveraging cross-sectoral capacity for improved disease surveillance and interventions. This requires the contextual adaptation of the One Health approach in a manner that is sensitive to the underlying socio-political, institutional and cultural context that determines and shapes outcomes of cross-sector collaborative arrangements. Keywords: One health, Cross-sectoral convergence, Emerging infectious disease, Zoonoses, Health system, India Background [6, 14]. Several scholars have for instance, highlighted In recent theoretical and policy debates on public health, the necessity to engage wide range of relevant profes- the One Health1 (OH) movement has gained momen- sionals to contribute valuable skillset and perspectives, tum and has increasingly been put forward not only as a competing health and development priorities, and lim- means of surmounting the threat of zoonotic diseases ited personnel and funding capacities as some of the but also as a viable strategy for achieving the UN Sus- fundamental challenges to the effective implementation tainable Development Goals (SDGs) [2, 3]. According to of OH initiatives [16, 17]. The international research proponents of the OH movement, cross-sectoral conver- community is thus saddled with the challenge of opti- gence2 provides a window of opportunity to transition mising OH implementation initiatives by producing from traditional “silo-based” functioning towards an in- practical/ grounded evidence that incorporates theoret- tegrated approach to zoonotic diseases at the human, ical OH issues and an understanding of the contextual animal and environment interface [7]. This argument influences [6, 11, 18, 19]. Within this context, the FAO- is particularly compelling given that 75% of all infectious OIE-WHO Tripartite Commitment document identified, diseases have an animal origin [8, 9], which underscores inter alia, the need to better understand the operational the importance of fostering this form of cross-sectoral and local contextual factors required to support effective engagement. The outbreaks of devastating epidemics OH operationalisation [20]. Whereas there is consider- such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) (2003), able theoretical evidence about the enablers and barriers Ebola (2014) and more recently the novel coronavirus to effective operationalisation of OH initiatives, there is (2019) have given additional impetus to the need for relative dearth of corresponding empirical evidence par- cross-sector engagement as exemplified by the wide- ticularly in LMIC settings [6, 21–23]. This has meant spread endorsement of the OH movement by leading that the potential of cross-sectoral collaborations for the international agencies (the Food and Agriculture Organ- purposes of zoonotic disease prevention and control re- isation, World Organisation for Animal Health, World main untapped in many LMICs [18, 22]. Consequently, Health Organisation) and successive national govern- there have been calls for more empirical studies on col- ments globally [3, 7, 10]. At the same time, the OH ap- laboration dynamics which may help explain the limited proach is also witnessed as crucial to effectively tackle uptake and/or success of the OH policies and programs endemic infections (such as brucellosis, leptospirosis and in developing contexts [6, 16, 24] and India specifically plague) with huge, yet under-reported disease burdens, [25–28]. Yet, empirical studies on zoonoses control in particularly in poor marginalised populations [11–13]. India (with the notable exception of [8, 13, 25, 29, 30]) While applauded as a game-changer [3, 6], the imple- have tended to focus on biological and ecological deter- mentation of the OH approach has at best been challen- minants of disease transmission and developing tech- ging particularly in LMICs, including India [14, 15]. The nical interventions, overlooking the socio-economic, reasons for such limited achievement are wide ranging political and cultural aspects that impinge the disease system. A context-specific understanding of the dynam- 1According to Kahn [1] One Health is defined as a worldwide strategy ics of cross-sectoral collaboration within the purview of for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in the existing governance arrangements is thus important all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment. in appropriately designing and implementing OH inter- 2In this paper, cross-sectoral convergence is defined as people and or- ganisations from multiple sectors working together for a common pur- ventions towards more effective integrated management pose following after Rouse and Fawcett [4]. Importantly, in the of endemic and emerging zoonotic diseases. literature collaboration or convergence is widely viewed as a con- The study aims to: (1) inform the effective operationa- tinuum ranging from disparate functioning to sharing information (co- lisation of contextually appropriate OH, by improving operation), to undertaking common activities (coordination) and merging resources and infrastructure (integration). In this view, terms practical understanding of the policy and local influences such as integration, collaboration, coordination and cooperation are on OH implementation, and (2) identify barriers and fa- often used interchangeably or defined differently to depict stages along cilitators linked to the prevention and control of zoo- ‘ ’ ‘ a continuum [5, 6]. We therefore use the terms convergence or col- noses. India provides an excellent case to examine the laboration’