08 Strategic plan development for Thailand Wildlife Health Network

Core activity #08

Strategic plan development for Thailand Wildlife Health Network

As the WOAH Twinning Collaborating Center Project, the “Workshop on Developing Strategy for Thailand Wildlife Health Network” was held on 13 July 2023, at Miracle Grand Convention Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, with partners from multiple government agencies and veterinary institutes in Thailand. The workshop aimed to develop a strategic plan to guide the network’s driving path. The information on past and current situations of wildlife disease surveillance will be created for the activities to fulfill the gaps in the long term and proposed to the senior level of the steering committee. In the workshop, the opening remark was to be honored by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Walasinee Sakcamduang, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, Mahidol University.

The overviews of the networking were delivered by the following speakers.

Dr. Jonathan Sleeman, the center director of USGS NWHC; Topic: Outcomes of the WOAH Twinning Project.
Dr. Craig Stephen, the Director of the McEachran Institute; Topic: How networking is powerful?
Dr. Witthawat Wiriyarat, the center director of Thailand-NWHC; Topic: Introduction to Thailand wildlife health networking.

To develop a strategic plan for sustainable wildlife disease surveillance and networking, the AIC method (Appreciation-Influence-Control) was used to conduct the participants to understand problem situations, limitations, needs, and potentials of stakeholders. The outcome was to establish the list of activities, missions, vision, and projects.

The AIC processing is composed of 3 steps;

Appreciation (A); to discuss reality and future vision. The center’s reality was summarized as “The new city will be a center that will receive and communicate the information to any partners. It will be a strong web to prevent emerging wildlife and zoonotic diseases sustainably”. The Ideal vision was a “Wildlife network for one health, one planet”

Influence (I); to find a strategy. The top rank of activities supported the expectation included the establishment of the steering committee, developing a data system and sharing, making policy about wildlife disease outbreak responding plan, seeking funding support, planning for the training course, and developing laboratory and research collaboration.

Control (C); to bring strategy for plan setting. In the workshop, three strategies, including Policy Engagement to strengthen a network, Life-Long Learning for sustainable development, and Sustainable Wildlife Health Network, were derived. In each strategy, the participants also discussed and described the rationale, objective, goals, procedure, duration, budget, responsible unit, key indicators, and expected outcomes.

Finally, the outcome of this method is to establish the list of activities, missions, vision, and projects to be proposed to the senior level in the next meeting.