This course is part of the Certificate peer learning programme for leadership in climate change and health.
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What is One Health?
One Health means that the health of people, the health of animals, and the health of the environment are connected. Protecting any one of them requires working across all of them.
Why care about One Health?
Animals are dying in a village. Children are falling sick from the same contaminated water. The veterinary worker documents one. The nurse documents the other. They have never met. The connection may not be obvious. How will they connect and learn from each other?
Who this is for?
This primer is open to anyone who cares about human health, animal health, or the environment.
What is special about this primer?
- This primer explores what that looks like in practice: why systems stay disconnected, what happens when they fail, and what communities are doing about it.
- The programme draws on the latest global evidence from academic research, global guidelines, and – most important – the lived experiences of thousands of health workers.
What you do in this course
- You learn about the connections between health, veterinary, agricultural, and environmental systems.
- Then you ask questions about your own situation: where do you see these connections? What keeps programs apart? What can you do with the resources you already have?
Learn to connect the dots between humans, animals, and the environment
Floods spread disease from livestock to people. Deforestation pushes wildlife closer to communities. Agricultural practices drive antibiotic resistance. Climate change expands the range of disease-carrying insects into new regions. The threats cross the boundaries between human health, animal health, agriculture, forestry, and the wider environment. But the systems built to respond still operate in separate silos.
What you will do in this primer
This primer helps you understand your challenges with the lens of One Health.
- You describe a situation from your work or community where human health, animal health, and the wider environment were connected. What happened? Who responded? What was missing? What do you see differently now?
- You identify two programs or services in your area that serve the same community but operate in separate silos. What keeps them apart? What happens when one loses its funding and no local system is ready to take over?
- You develop a specific plan to connect your work with another sector in the next three months, using resources you already have. Who will you talk to? What barriers do you expect? How will you know it is working?
Why make time for this?
- We start with your reality. Your local context is the primary text. Every activity asks you to analyze your own setting and plan your own action.
- We connect you to a global network. You exchange ideas and feedback with professionals across countries and sectors.
- We build on trusted knowledge. The programme draws on the latest global evidence from academic research, global guidelines, and – most important – the lived experiences of thousands of health workers.
- We respect your time. Short, text-based readings. No video. No heavy downloads. Works on any phone.
Your credential of value
You will earn a certificate of completion from The Geneva Learning Foundation that documents the work you produced in the course.
This primer is a starting point
This primer is your starting point for exploring One Health. It is part of the Certificate peer learning programme for leadership in climate change and health.
Learn more about the full Certificate programme: https://www.learning.foundation/climate
What do professionals say about the Certificate peer learning programme for leadership in climate change and health?
After completing the inaugural course on climate change and health, a health worker in Nepal wrote: “This transformed me from an implementer into a change agent.”
A nurse in Tanzania said: “The peer review showed me there is potential for networking with colleagues from different countries”.
The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is a member of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education.