The One Health and Gender Working Group of NEOH is an interdisciplinary group of experienced and committed One Health researchers and practitioners, whose work focuses on gender issues in animal health, environmental health and human health with a One Health approach. With broad and complementary expertise in biodiversity conservation, anthropology, veterinary medicine, public health, environmental health and gender as well as experience in many different regions of the world (Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe), our group is committed to contribute to bring transformative change to a deeply inequitable world.
Our mission as a One Health and Gender WG is to promote the adoption of gender responsive One Health at all levels of society, including policy makers, international institutions, businesses, academics, NGOs and civil society through capacity building, research, awareness raising, education, research and policy making. This has now become a critical step not only to address the interconnected climate, biodiversity and health crises but also to make the world a more equitable and fair place, where women see their rights fully respected and their potential as agents of transformative change unlocked.
Even before the COVID-19 started, we developed a framework for mainstreaming a gender responsive and human-rights based One Health approach at all levels of society in order to protect nature, improve health and wellbeing and to prevent threats emerging at the Human/Animal/Environment interface. Our review of gender roles, responsibilities and risks at the interface and of gender and social inequities in the health, environment and climate spheres clearly called for a gender-transformative approach where the deep drivers of inequities are addressed.
More recently, our paper emphasized how gender inequities, which have been exacerbated but also exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, are still prevailing at all levels of societies and especially the decision-making sphere. We strongly advocate that gender-responsive One Health will advance gender equity but that gender equity will also enable to unlock the full potential of One Health.
Our activities are diverse but they all aim to bring change through the mainstreaming of gender-responsive One Health, which will then become gender-transformative One Health as we will contribute to create an enabling environment to improve the position of women, girls and marginalized groups, and to transform the underlying social structures, policies and norms that perpetuate gender inequalities. This will be done through:
- Awareness and education on gender issues in One Health with the scientific community, policy-makers, private sector and civil society. We organize workshops, webinars and side-events at international conferences to highlight gender issues and inequities and how to address them with a One Health approach.
- Capacity building on the integration of gender-responsive One Health with researchers, students, civil society, NGOs, private sector, for which we develop specific training curriculum on gender and One Health.
- Developing Gender Equality Strategies and Plans for scientific institutions and institutions. We facilitate conversation on gender issues with stakeholders of any interested institution in a participatory way which leads to the development of a Gender Equality Plan and its endorsement by all members of this institution.
- Researching gender issues in animal health, human health, environmental health and climate change with a One Health approach in order to identify leverage points for transformative change in reducing gender and social inequities and improving health of all.
- Monitoring & Evaluating of gender projects, research and training for national and international agencies and universities
- Advocating for gender-transformative policies and practices in One Health. We develop policy briefs for decision-making institutions.
The Gender and One Health WG is composed of:
Julie Garnier (Dr Vre, D.Vet.Med., MRCVS) is a veterinarian expert in One Health, Biodiversity and Gender; founding member of the Network for European One Health / Ecohealth where she founded the Gender and One Health Working Group, co-founder of One Health Maroc and co-founder of Odyssey Conservation Trust which develops community-based and gender-responsive One Health programmes in biodiversity-rich areas. She has 30-years experience in community-based integrated conservation and community development with a gender perspective around the world with 20+ years of living in Africa. She now promotes gender-responsive One Health by building resilience in the most vulnerable communities at the forefront of biodiversity conservation and climate change through gender-responsive One Health programmes, capacity building and awareness raising on One Health and gender with different stakeholders (academic institutions, policy-making bodies, donors, private sector, civil society), conducting research in One Health and Gender. She has been elected Femme en Or for the Environment in France.
Brigitte Bagnol has been working with a gender perspective on the HIV pandemic since 1988, on Newcastle disease zoonosis since 1993, on H5N1 avian influenza since 2006. From 2010 to 2019 she worked with Tufts University (Boston) on integrating a gender perspective into the response to emerging infectious diseases at pandemic risk from a “One Health” perspective as part of the USAID funded RESPOND project. She included a gender perspective in “One Health” projects: the “Timor Village Poultry Health and Biosecurity Program” (from 2014 to 2017) and the research project “Strengthening food security through family poultry and crop integration in eastern and southern Africa” (from 2012 to 2018). On the theme of gender and “One Health”, she has conducted training, research, developed training materials, published a large number of articles and presented at conferences. Since 1994, she has been an independent consultant carrying out mainly evaluations and research in Southern Africa and Asia. Brigitte Bagnol has brought a gender perspective to a range of sectors such as education, health, agriculture, ecohealth and nutrition. She has conducted gender analyses, mainstreamed gender and developed gender strategies in research, development projects and public policies. She has been contracted to design or evaluate projects, research and training on these issues for various international cooperation agencies.
Sara Savic, PhD, DVM, is a senior researcher fellow, working in a diagnostic laboratory within the Scientific Veterinary Institute “Novi Sad” in Novi Sad, Serbia. Her main work is based on the diagnostic procedures for zoonotic diseases including vector-borne zoonoses. Dr. Savic completed her PhD degree on Diagnostics of Lyme disease in dogs and ticks, and then turned her interests and career towards other vector-borne diseases important for public health and other One Health issues. One Health approach is her perspective today. The significance of multidisciplinary work has become most interesting during the past decade. She is one of the founders of Serbian One Health Association and organizer of each year’s annual meeting “One Health Day” in Serbia. Dr. Savic has published over 200 publications so far as a leading author or as a coauthor in different scientific journals or at conferences. Besides diagnostics, her work is also dedicated to education, especially in the field of One Health. Dr Savic is a proud and active member of Network for Ecohealth and One Health as an European chapter of Ecohealth international.
Elena Boriani, PhD is owner and the principal researcher of EB consult, a small consultancy company based in Denmark. Elena collaborates directly with the activities of the Network for One Health and EcoHealth and other running EU and local projects . She has been working as Post Doc in DTU FOOD and Sustainability Department Denmark, and since 2013 she has been affiliated with One Health. She has a PhD in human, animal and environmental risk assessment related to chemical substances and she has many years of experience working in interdisciplinary international projects and teams within the topics of public health, animal -human-environment risk assessment, food safety and toxic chemicals. Lately she worked on methodologies to apply system thinking to complex case studies involving many disciplines. She is involved in gender equality, and she applies gender lens to all her commitments both in public and private sectors.
Natalia Cediel is a Veterinarian, MSc Public Health (Colombian National University), PhD Veterinary Sciences (Università degli Studio di Torino, Italy). She has eighteen years of experience working in multi-disciplinary health teams and intercultural workplaces on veterinary public health education and epidemiologic research in zoonoses. Currently member of the One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) of the Quadripartite (WHO/WOAH/FAO/UNEP). Member of the Latin American, Ibero and the Caribe Leaders Network (OHLAIC), leading member of the Cyted Network in One Health and Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss. Member of the gender equity and reconciliation international network. Member of the Cátedra UNESCO in Sustainable Development. International consultant on Public Health – One Health for the Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO-WHO-Panaftosa).
Richard Kock (MA, VMB, VMD) is a retired professor in wildlife health and emerging diseases from the Royal Veterinary College London, where he initiated Masters training in One Health with the London School Tropical Medicine and Health along with a research portfolio in serious pathogens, including zoonosis. A 42 year career focused on Africa and Asia, now an independent scholar in One Health at the interface between animals, humans and environment and disease emergences and emergencies in animal systems. Awarded FAO Bronze Medal in 2010 and African Union Commendation in recognition of work on morbilliviruses and its eradication, and the Tom and Beth Williams Award – Wildlife Disease Association for exceptional contributions to understanding wildlife disease of policy relevance.