CASE STUDY

8th World One Health Congress (WOHC) 2024

20-24 September 2024, Cape Town, South Africa

Prof Marietjie Venter, Congress Co-Chair for the 8th World One Health Conference, shared her insights into the 8th World One Health Congress (WOHC), where an Africa city served as the host of this congress for the first time.

Partnering with the South Africa National Convention Bureau

The South Africa National Convention Bureau (SANCB) supported the 8th World One Health Congress (WOHC) 2024, Cape Town, South Africa.

For this kind of congress, securing sponsorship is very important, since registration fees do not cover the costs. Raising local funding is always very important, as it embeds the congress in the local community. The SANCB contributed greatly to increasing South Africa’s prospect of hosting a conference of this magnitude, through the Bid Support Programme. The financial assistance included bid support, delegate boosting such as marketing, local entertainment, airport activation, event management services, and onsite support services. This support made it possible to present a budget favourable to the international committee, to host the event in South Africa.

“The organising committee of the 8th World One Health Congress is very thankful for the support they received from the SANCB in bringing the Congress to South Africa.” — Marietjie Venter, Congress Co-Chair, University of Witwatersrand.

The 8th World One Health (WOHC)Congress

The World One Health Congress (WOHC) is the world’s premier Congress to advance the One Health agenda.The Congress leverages the experience of the global One Health Community (formerly One Health Platform) to animal-human disease transmission alongside their social and environmental determinants.The WOHC takes place biennially, attracting professionals from academic institutions, civil society, national governments, the private sector and multilateral organisations. Leading scientists and policymakers come together to share learnings across diverse disciplines, including epidemiology and disease surveillance, animal production and trade, food safety, animal health, human health, environmental science/ ecology, and global health security.

The World One Health Congress, as the largest One Health event of the year, brings together experts in scientific research, policy, and industry globally, to encourage collaboration for enhanced human, animal, and environmental research for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and to achieve optimum planetary health.The importance of One Health’s cooperation was brought to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic, and building these bridges is more important than ever.

Estimated Economic Impact – R35,840,000*

*This is an estimation as the final report has not been shared.

Delegate Numbers

The conference brought together more than 1,400 delegates from 87 countries (including 670 participants from 35 African countries), 400 speakers across 70 sessions, including 1,388 submitted abstracts, and 600 scientific posters, were presented. The 400 speakers including scientists, policymakers, students and industry focused on the importance of Africa in One Health.

With the objective of addressing all crosssectoral and transdisciplinary aspects of the One Health paradigm and representing all continents, 117 travel grants were awarded to Low-or Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) and early career scientists.

This Congress enhanced the importance of South Africa as a global leader in human, animal, and environmental health and epidemic and pandemic preparedness. It promoted both academic strengths in medical and veterinary research. Furthermore, delegates were able to experience the local flavour, during the congress, through local entertainment. Furthermore, from a tourism perspective, local pre- and post- tours were offered to delegates.

The 2019 COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of including Africa in the global response to emerging diseases and investing in the One Health response. Africa has been the origin of several emerging and Zoonotic diseases of international concern in recent history including HIV, Ebola, West Nile virus, Zika virus, Chikungunya, and Monkeypox. The continent has experienced the burden of health and economic loss due to these diseases. However, the continent has developed expertise in detection, prevention and control of emerging Zoonotic diseases. South Africa’s leadership in identification and rapid reporting of new COVID-19 variants of concern enhanced the global response, but the country was marginalised internationally through travel restrictions even though these variants were already circulating internationally before they were identified in South Africa.

Inequality in the availability of public health measures such as vaccines and diagnostic testing on the African continent relative to the developed world is detrimental to global health security.

“In terms of pandemic preparedness, it is very difficult to predict where the next outbreak is going to come from.There are new and exciting innovations in science. In addition to multidisciplinary collaborations, it is highly important to also get the engagement of industry partners”.

The knowledge economy

The Congress served as a platform for experts, researchers, and professionals from diverse disciplines to converge and exchange knowledge on critical topics related to One Health.

Through the congress, world experts, researchers, and professionals from diverse disciplines were brought together to exchange knowledge on critical topics related to One Health. The research had both a function in professional training of scientists, veterinarians, medical experts and policymakers and for training of young scientists and students. The congress included several sessions on One Health education and also funded 117 students from across the world, including LMIC, to attend the congress. This was funded through grants from the National Research Foundation of South Africa, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.

Key Outcome

One Health experts called for inclusion of the One Health concept in binding frameworks to achieve the SDGs. In view of the forthcoming UNFCCC COP 29 and G20 Summit Rio 2024, Congress Chairs and participants called for embedding One Health principles into legislative frameworks.

“For us in Africa, this is a dream come true.We are all ambassadors of One Health.We have both the opportunity and the responsibility to successfully operationalise One Health in our respective countries. Furthermore, we need to find a way to embed One Health in legislative frameworks, international protocols, and agreements.” Misheck Mulumba, Congress Co-Chair,Africa One Health Network (AfOHNet)

Local community

Local products were sourced, and local companies were appointed. Several side events were organised pre- and postcongress and these involved extra hotel nights and meeting venues.

• Local companies were contracted for onsite congress support (Vetlink), hosts, AV (AV Sense), transfers, video recording, etc.

• Local organisations were sourced for entertainment and local flavour: Youth Choir, Marimba Jam, dancers, etc.

• All printing and delegate material came from local businesses: congress bags, water bottles, lanyards, programme books, badges and banners.

“We should have come to Africa years ago,” — John Mackenzie, Congress Co-Chair, Curtin University.

For more information on the Bid Support programme, please click here.