BUAN charts Botswana’s path to One Health
Kabelo Boranabi | Monday October 27, 2025 11:41
The Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), in collaboration with the EU-funded Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa (COHESA) project, convened a high-level One Health Breakfast Meeting this week. The objective of the gathering was to push for a national framework that harmonises the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems – a move experts say is long overdue. The gathering, held at the Avani Resort, attracted researchers, policymakers, and development partners from across government, academia, and civil society, all united by a shared recognition that Botswana cannot afford to address health challenges in silos any longer.
BUAN Vice-Chancellor Professor, Ketlhatlogile Mosepele, referred to the One Health agenda as a critical pillar for national resilience.
“We are here not only to discuss a topic that might be construed as academic, but to extol its strategic importance for our nation’s health and economic future,” he said.
Mosepele outlined that One Health is anchored on three pillars being healthy ecosystems, healthy animals, and healthy humans and two of which directly fall within BUAN’s mandate.
He noted that as Botswana pushes to increase agriculture’s contribution to GDP from two percent to six percent and expand its livestock herd to five million, the nation must ensure strong systems for disease management and prevention.
The Vice-Chancellor cited the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which estimates that zoonotic and food-system diseases cost the global economy trillions annually.
“One Health is not a luxury. It is a food-security and sustainability issue,” he stressed, warning that fragmented approaches would cripple Botswana’s ambitions for agricultural transformation.
BUAN deputy Vice-Chancellor and COHESA project co-ordinator Professor Moatlhodi Kgosimore explained that One Health is a collaborative, multi-sectoral and transdisciplinary approach.
He said it works at local, national, and global levels to optimise the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
Kgosimore explained that the COHESA project, implemented across 12 African countries including Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Somalia, assesses readiness to institutionalise One Health systems.
Botswana, he admitted, started from a difficult position, lacking both a One Health policy and a formal coordination platform.
From BUAN’s baseline study, Kgosimore highlighted several recurring challenges being inadequate cross-sectoral collaboration, limited funding, weak research infrastructure, and ineffective adaptation of scientific findings by communities.
“We often leave out societal issues and that is where adoption becomes a challenge,” he cautioned.
“We end up imposing what we find in our studies instead of co-creating solutions with communities,” he stated.
Despite the gaps, he noted that Botswana’s past multi-sectoral responses to crises such as HIV and COVID-19 pandemic reflect that the country already has “undocumented One Health systems” that can be built upon.
“We may not have called them One Health, but those were collaborative systems — and they worked,” he said.
Key researcher under COHESA, Professor Flora Meulenberg, presented findings from a One Health Net-Mapping Exercise conducted in 2023, which analysed the relationships, influence, and collaboration between key stakeholders.
The study revealed that the Ministry of Health holds the most influence in One Health activities, with 60 inter-linkages (30 incoming, 30 outgoing), followed by the Ministry of Environment, the Office of the President, and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Her presentation underscored the fragmented coordination within existing structures.
“The results show that while collaboration exists, it is uneven and often ministry-driven,” she said.
Meulenberg argued that Botswana’s One Health platform should be anchored at the highest level of government to ensure cross-sectoral accountability.
In other African countries, she noted, the One Health secretariat is housed under the Office of the President, allowing for equal participation by all ministries and preventing “big brother” dynamics.
“We believe the Botswana Public Health Institute (BPHI) could be the right home for One Health,” she proposed, “because it has a national mandate and sits at the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health.”
The discussions converged on three priority pillars for action are governance and coordination in a bid to establish a national One Health platform under strong, central leadership.
In addition there is capacity building and education to embed One Health principles in academic curricula and community training.
While lastly is integration and communication and this is to ensure collaboration among ministries, research institutions, and traditional systems, with indigenous knowledge recognised as a valid component of the health ecosystem.
Kgosimore emphasised the need to break the “silo mentality” that often hinders inter-agency cooperation.
“Even within the same sectors, collaboration is weak. We must build a culture of partnership,” he urged.
He also highlighted the importance of the inclusion of indigenous knowledge systems and community structures that often feel sidelined, saying they play a critical role in environmental conservation and disease surveillance.
Meanwhile, participants applauded BUAN and COHESA for steering the conversation toward practical frameworks and committed to exploring ways to institutionalise One Health at national level.
The gathering made clear that Botswana’s path toward One Health is both a scientific and a governance challenge one that demands sustained political will, data-driven decision-making, and inclusive participation.