Harnessing Data for One Health
- May 11
- 3 min read
A landmark global session on why data convergence is the cornerstone of our collective health future
Across continents and disciplines, a powerful consensus has emerged: the future of global health depends not just on better science, but on better data — collected, shared, and governed across the boundaries that have long kept human, animal, and plant health siloed from one another.
In a wide-ranging session now available to watch in full, key stakeholders from Africa, North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and Oceania converged on a single, urgent message: data convergence is central to our ability to predict, prevent, and respond to health risks — from wildlands to villages to the densest urban centres.
Why data convergence matters now
The One Health framework recognises that human health, animal health, and plant health are deeply interconnected — and that no single sector can tackle emerging threats alone. What this session made clear is that the connective tissue linking these three domains is data.
Speakers highlighted the transformative potential of combining health data streams: demographic data, climate observations, satellite imagery, veterinary surveillance records, and disease morbidity statistics. When these datasets converge, they can unlock early-warning signals that none could provide in isolation. The costs of failing to do so — of fragmented, restricted, or weaponised data — were described as simply unfathomable.
"The benefits of collecting, curating and sharing data among human health, animal health and plant health — notably when associated with climate data — were monumental. The costs of doing nothing were unfathomable."
Real-world success stories from across the globe
One of the most compelling aspects of the session was the breadth of concrete, real-world examples shared by participants. These were not theoretical models — they were live demonstrations that data-driven One Health approaches are already delivering results:
Belgium · Africa · Asia — EPCON: AI-powered epidemiological twin models predicting disease hotspots in real time — tripling TB detection rates in targeted communities.
India: Comprehensive data collection in model villages, designed to scale across the subcontinent.
Africa: Combining demographics, electricity consumption, and morbidity data to predict health risks at the local level.
Brazil: Citizen science — and smartphones — mobilised to monitor the spread of vector-borne diseases in real time.
The principles for trustworthy data sharing
A recurring theme was the need for clear frameworks and shared norms to enable international data exchange without sacrificing the sovereignty or rights of those who generate that data.
Experts called for a future built on:
Data sovereignty — communities and nations retain meaningful control over their data
Transparency and traceability in how data is collected, processed, and used
Interoperability across systems, standards, and borders
Security and privacy protections as non-negotiables
Equity and fair benefit-sharing, so that data-rich outputs reach those who need them most
Ethical governance frameworks at both national and international levels
The important multilateral work already underway in global health fora was acknowledged, and participants looked to the BEOne flagship initiative as a promising vehicle for translating these principles into practice. Innovative public-private financing models were flagged as essential to sustaining momentum.
A Declaration of Intent and a call for political momentum
Participants expressed a clear wish: that the forthcoming One Health Summit would provide not only technical guidance but genuine political momentum for enhanced international collaboration — across governments, research institutions, civil society, and all geographies.
To that end, the session welcomed — and several participants formally endorsed — the One Health Data Convergence Declaration of Intent, a framework designed to anchor further action on shared principles and collective ambition.
The message from the room was unanimous: the tools, the evidence, and the will are there. What is needed now is the governance, the trust, and the financing to act at scale — before the next crisis makes the cost of inaction impossible to ignore.
