One Health and Wildlife Health Capacity Enhancement Services

Wildlife health is essential because healthy wildlife populations are vital for the health of ecosystems, human well-being, and food security, and their decline can have far-reaching consequences.

Wildlife Health Programs

There is an increasing need for robust wildlife health programs that provide surveillance and management for diseases in wildlife and wild aquatic populations to manage associated risks. To support such efforts, adequate and appropriate knowledge, skills, commitment, structures, systems, partnerships, and leadership underpinning wildlife health programs are needed. Design of a wildlife health program, therefore, requires a rigorous process to identify needs and resources, establish priority goals, and set out the processes needed to secure critical capacities to meet goals and objectives.

Recent studies have identified an overall low level of capacity to perform wildlife disease surveillance, with marked variability between countries, illustrating the need for wildlife health program capacity enhancement. Our services are designed to fill these gaps.

Our approach

We use a system-wide approach to holistically and interdependently enhance wildlife health capacity to go beyond technical training, and we use participatory approaches to jointly assess capacity needs, to design context-specific capacity development activities, and to monitor results.

We typically work in teams of consultants that are assembled to reflect our client’s needs and our staff’s areas of expertise. Our consultants bring years of practical experience and leadership in wildlife health and One Health. We work with organizations of various lifecycle stages, and our fundamental role is to guide clients towards more impactful work by helping them make informed decisions and manage their work effectively and efficiently in order to support lasting change.

Our services

We provide the following services, which are tailored to the client’s specific needs and circumstances:

Visioning and strategic planning

We use tools such as Theory of Change, logical models, SWOT exercises, scenario planning, etc.

Program needs assessments

We have developed a bespoke needs assessment tool for wildlife health programs that identifies critical gaps and priorities for capacity enhancement. We also use tools such as swim-lane exercises, and risk assessments.

Partner network development

We use tools such as network mapping, charter and governance development, etc.

Program evaluation

We conduct partner surveys and workshops to assess program effectiveness.

Training

We offer training in the following areas

Leadership and program management

Management of networks

Design of wildlife surveillance programs

Outbreak investigations

One Health competencies

Risk assessment

Risk communication and knowledge mobilization

Ecosystem Function	Healthy wildlife populations play crucial roles in maintaining the balance and functioning of ecosystems, including pollination, seed dispersal, pest control, and nutrient cycling.
Biodiversity and Conservation	Protecting wildlife health helps to preserve biodiversity, which is essential for the resilience and stability of ecosystems.
Human Health and Food Security	Wildlife health is directly linked to human health, as many diseases can spread from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases). Furthermore, wildlife populations can be a source of food and income for local communities.
Economic Benefits	Healthy wildlife populations can support tourism and other economic activities that benefit communities.
One Health Approach	Recognizing the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, the One Health approach emphasizes the importance of addressing wildlife health as a key component of overall health and well-being.
Surveillance and Prevention	Monitoring wildlife health helps to detect and prevent diseases, which can have devastating consequences for both wildlife and human populations.
Environmental Health	Healthy wildlife populations are indicators of a healthy environment. By protecting wildlife, we also protect the natural resources that sustain us.