Jakarta (ANTARA) – Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy, through a statement, Friday, underlined the importance of strengthening the health architecture in ASEAN through the One Health approach.”The 42nd ASEAN Summit raised four cooperation priorities, with one of them being health architecture strengthening,” he remarked. Health architecture strengthening through the One Health approach is driven by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic that had caused multidimensional crisis and health vulnerability, he explained. Hence, to this end, the One Health declaration became one of Indonesia’s initiatives in the health sector as part of the ASEAN socio-cultural pillar, he remarked. “The One Health Initiative declaration also underlined the integration of (efforts to balance and optimize) the health of humans, animals, and environment into the health system to improve prevention and response to future pandemics,” Effendy noted. The minister stressed the importance of an integrated approach to handle complex health challenges. In addition to the health issue, the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Pillar encompasses the ASEAN village network and protection of migrant workers in crisis circumstances. This aims to advance an inclusive ASEAN while still remaining relevant with the development of global issues, according to Effendy. Meanwhile, Head of the Global Health Policy and Health Technology Center at the Health Ministry Bonanza Perwira Taihitu stated that the declaration also underlined the importance of experience, learning, and advancement sharing. It also necessitates the involvement of people in the ASEAN for the implementation of One Health. The sustainability of the program requires adequate resources as well as support from the government, non-government entities, and international development partners. “The formation of the declaration had passed the intensive discussion stage and collaboration between humans, animal health, agriculture, forestry, environment and food in ASEAN country members,” he noted.

Source: Antara News Agency