Türkiye One Health Shield: Strengthening Pandemic Preparedness Through Integrated Response

Background

Turkey was awarded US$24.98 million from the Pandemic Fund to enhance its pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) capabilities. The grant mobilized an additional US$21.8 million in co-financing from international sources, as well as US$266.5 million in co-investment from the government’s own budget.

Turkey is located at the vibrant intersection where Europe, Asia, and the Middle East meet and boasts extensive land and maritime borders. Frequent mobility across these borders, the country's diverse ecology, and frequent natural disasters amplify the country’s exposure to transboundary, zoonotic, and other disease threats. Turkey is also host to 4 million migrants, many of whom live in informal settlements and border regions, where access to health care is limited.

The complexity of Turkey's public health landscape calls for a coordinated, One Health approach. In response, the country’s project seeks to break up silos and advance multisectoral cooperation. It is led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change. It also features the collaboration of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as the project’s implementing entity.

Project objectives

With the support of project partners and the Pandemic Fund, Turkey aims to increase cooperation among its ministries and boost public health security across the country.

Implementation arrangements and key components

Turkey’s project aligns with the Pandemic Fund’s priorities -- surveillance, laboratory systems, and workforce development. More detail on these components follows.

Strengthening One Health coordination. This portion of the project focuses on establishing and operationalizing a national One Health Committee and One Health web platform, developing inter-ministerial standard operating procedures, and creating technical working groups dedicated to surveillance, laboratories, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Modernizing surveillance and early warning systems. Activities in this area include upgrading digital surveillance and early warning systems, as well as integrating surveillance and AI analytics to predict outbreaks more effectively. They also include making human, animal, and environmental data interoperable, improving cross-sectoral AMR surveillance, and strengthening infrastructure and reporting protocols at Turkey’s points of entry.

Unifying the country’s laboratory systems. This component of the project centers on strengthening and integrating laboratory systems across the human, animal, and environmental sectors, as well as boosting biosafety, genomic surveillance, and AMR testing capabilities.

Developing the cross-sectoral workforce. This work focuses on mapping the One Health workforce, scaling-up cross-sectoral Field Epidemiology Training and Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training programs, developing competency-based trainings-of-trainers, and running simulation exercises.

Engaging communities. At the community level, activities focus on risk communication and community engagement, particularly among migrant and other underserved communities. They also include strengthening community-based surveillance and biosecurity, as well as boosting collaboration with academic institutions.

As the project’s implementing entity, the FAO brings its technical expertise and strong institutional partnerships. It will also support One Health implementation and a range of other project activities.