Scaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDR

<p><strong>Background:</strong> One Health focuses on sustainable health for humans, animals, and ecosystems. The approach has been well demonstrated, yet most efforts have not been scaled up. Understanding the organisations involved in scaling up processes is critical to translati...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Larkins, A, Vannamahaxay, S, Puttana, V, Chittavong, M, Southammavong, F, Mayxay, M, Boyd, D, Bruce, M, Ash, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023
_version_ 1811139146422419456
author Larkins, A
Vannamahaxay, S
Puttana, V
Chittavong, M
Southammavong, F
Mayxay, M
Boyd, D
Bruce, M
Ash, A
author_facet Larkins, A
Vannamahaxay, S
Puttana, V
Chittavong, M
Southammavong, F
Mayxay, M
Boyd, D
Bruce, M
Ash, A
author_sort Larkins, A
collection OXFORD
description <p><strong>Background:</strong> One Health focuses on sustainable health for humans, animals, and ecosystems. The approach has been well demonstrated, yet most efforts have not been scaled up. Understanding the organisations involved in scaling up processes is critical to translating research into practice. The Lao People's Democratic Republic has successfully implemented One Health projects for multiple decades; however, the organisational network has not been described and scaling up efforts have been limited.</p> <br> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> Data from organisations involved in One Health projects over the past five years were collected by keyinformant interview or workshop. The network was investigated using a mixture of quantitative network analysis and qualitative thematic analysis.</p> <br> <p><strong>Results:</strong> The organisational network was quantitatively described as sparse and centralised. Organisations were required to harness pre-existing relationships to maximise scarce resources and make co-ordination and alignment of priorities more efficient. A lack of international organisations in the top 10% of resource sharing metrics suggests a potential disconnect between donors. This was reflected in the challenges faced by national organisations and a feeling of being stretched thin over numerous externally funded projects with donor-driven priorities.</p> <br> <p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> It appears that high-level political support for country ownership of development and aid priorities remains unrealised. Developing network capacity and capability may assist scaling up efforts and build resilience in the network and its core organisations. This may allow for the inclusion of more development, education, environment, and water, sanitation, and hygiene organisations that were perceived to be lacking. Future One Health programmes should focus on practical activities that do not overload staff capacity. There is much for One Health to learn about the art of scaling up and organisations are encouraged to include implementation science in their research to inform future scaling up efforts.</p>
first_indexed 2024-04-23T08:25:17Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:38f95b01-bc65-432b-8ed2-7509a0b34f53
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-09-25T04:01:27Z
publishDate 2023
publisher Elsevier
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:38f95b01-bc65-432b-8ed2-7509a0b34f532024-05-01T10:11:51ZScaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDRJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:38f95b01-bc65-432b-8ed2-7509a0b34f53EnglishSymplectic ElementsElsevier2023Larkins, AVannamahaxay, SPuttana, VChittavong, MSouthammavong, FMayxay, MBoyd, DBruce, MAsh, A<p><strong>Background:</strong> One Health focuses on sustainable health for humans, animals, and ecosystems. The approach has been well demonstrated, yet most efforts have not been scaled up. Understanding the organisations involved in scaling up processes is critical to translating research into practice. The Lao People's Democratic Republic has successfully implemented One Health projects for multiple decades; however, the organisational network has not been described and scaling up efforts have been limited.</p> <br> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> Data from organisations involved in One Health projects over the past five years were collected by keyinformant interview or workshop. The network was investigated using a mixture of quantitative network analysis and qualitative thematic analysis.</p> <br> <p><strong>Results:</strong> The organisational network was quantitatively described as sparse and centralised. Organisations were required to harness pre-existing relationships to maximise scarce resources and make co-ordination and alignment of priorities more efficient. A lack of international organisations in the top 10% of resource sharing metrics suggests a potential disconnect between donors. This was reflected in the challenges faced by national organisations and a feeling of being stretched thin over numerous externally funded projects with donor-driven priorities.</p> <br> <p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> It appears that high-level political support for country ownership of development and aid priorities remains unrealised. Developing network capacity and capability may assist scaling up efforts and build resilience in the network and its core organisations. This may allow for the inclusion of more development, education, environment, and water, sanitation, and hygiene organisations that were perceived to be lacking. Future One Health programmes should focus on practical activities that do not overload staff capacity. There is much for One Health to learn about the art of scaling up and organisations are encouraged to include implementation science in their research to inform future scaling up efforts.</p>
spellingShingle Larkins, A
Vannamahaxay, S
Puttana, V
Chittavong, M
Southammavong, F
Mayxay, M
Boyd, D
Bruce, M
Ash, A
Scaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDR
title Scaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDR
title_full Scaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDR
title_fullStr Scaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDR
title_full_unstemmed Scaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDR
title_short Scaling up One Health: a network analysis in Lao PDR
title_sort scaling up one health a network analysis in lao pdr
work_keys_str_mv AT larkinsa scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT vannamahaxays scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT puttanav scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT chittavongm scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT southammavongf scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT mayxaym scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT boydd scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT brucem scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr
AT asha scalinguponehealthanetworkanalysisinlaopdr