We are pleased to share an interview with Dr. Alexandre Fediaevsky, who leads the Department of Preparedness and Resilience at the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). Dr. Fediaevsky and his team will host the new Secretariat of the International Alliance, marking an exciting chapter for the Alliance’s future.
The GIZ Secretariat prepared key questions that provide an outlook on the future direction of the Alliance under WOAH’s guidance. These questions also reflect on the outcomes and milestones achieved over the past four years, setting the stage for continued progress and impact.
A heartfelt thank-you to the WOAH team for their invaluable contributions, we are eager to see the innovative steps the future will bring! We would like to specifically thank Alexandre Fediaevsky and his team colleagues Claire Cayol, Sophie Muset, Dharmaveer Shetty and Francoise Dias.
What inspired you to take on the role of the next Secretariat team of the Alliance?
Why did WOAH choose to take over the Alliance?
These past years WOAH has been unfolding its first formal Wildlife Health Framework, which revealed a strong convergence with the objectives of the Alliance. We probably made a similar analysis to those who developed the Alliance! This represents a great opportunity to synergise the efforts and hopefully sustain the work done by the Alliance. A clarification: WOAH will assume the Secretariat role, but not take over the Alliance itself, the governance of the Alliance will remain the same: member-driven! The Alliance belongs first and foremost to its members.
How did WOAH perceive and experience the Alliance?
As an active member of the Alliance, participating in two Working Groups and recently joining as a member of the Steering Committee, WOAH values the work done by the Secretariat and the dedication of the members of the Alliance. From the outside, we perceived the Alliance as a dynamic network with useful objectives supported by courageous and innovative implementation. The Alliance clearly brought a breath of fresh air to a vital but often neglected issue.
Being a member has been a very positive experience thanks to the passion-driven community. It is interesting because the Alliance has a flexible membership model, which is different to WOAH’s traditional model of partnerships where we usually sign an agreement of understanding. Both membership content and structure are quite complementary, in particular with regards to Academia and NGOs with whom we will collaborate as the Secretariat of the Alliance without having any formal procedures.
In terms of accomplishments, we noticed many relevant initiatives, knowledge development and experience sharing, which are very close to WOAH’s values. We are eager to build on this progress and advance our shared goals.
What drives your commitment to the Alliance’s mission?
WOAH’s core mission is to improve animal health and welfare while leveraging a One Health approach. The health risks associated with wildlife trade are part of that ecosystem. Even though when related to wildlife, these topics present complexities that demand tailored solutions. As an inter-governmental organisation, we are committed to serving the interests of our 183 members and we strongly believe that it includes better addressing health risks in wildlife trade. We hope that this integration will allow deeper connections between veterinary services traditionally responsible for animal health and the diverse partners that the Alliance brings. This integration is key to building a more cohesive, effective system for safeguarding health across the human, animal, and environment interface.
What is your vision of embracing innovation and change?
What are the core values of the Alliance that must be upheld?
The Alliance’s inclusivity is exemplary, particularly in its efforts to integrate Indigenous knowledge and local culture, even if it is difficult to address representativeness and broad outreach. These values are very relevant to maintain. Additionally, the communication done by the Secretariat, the technical coordination and care for details have been exceptional and inspiring.
Another aspect is the Alliance’s commitment to the development of knowledge and sharing experiences, which are natural values for WOAH.
Equally important are the results and locally oriented perspectives, which are important to keep while maintaining constant contact with the field for reality checks and optimal science-policy connection.
The members of the Alliance form an international, interdisciplinary, and inclusive multi-stakeholder platform for knowledge exchange, an incubator for innovation and co-creation, uniting various disciplines across the One Health spectrum, providing a neutral space to find solutions to complex and pressing issues. This dynamic identity must be preserved as we evolve.
Where is innovation and change needed?
From an enabling environment perspective, the integration with WOAH members and their wildlife focal point, leveraging WOAH’s growing network of 274 reference laboratories and 76 collaborative centres, and the further development of operational One Health platforms at national level will be essential to foster development and adoption of science-based policy approaches. As well as enhanced collaboration with law enforcement authorities should be considered.
New, innovative paths for science-policy connections are needed, and the Alliance could be an exceptional incubator to experiment with new processes, since the integration will bring close contact between WOAH’s traditional membership and the knowledge and field success stories emanating from the Alliance.
From a technical perspective, the capacity to generate, share and use reliable health data is essential. In terms of wildlife, there are many organisational, scientific and practical challenges for which we will need collective thinking. For WOAH, it will be important to remain based on science and objective facts to inform decision makers on how wildlife trade impacts the risk of transmission of diseases, in particular zoonosis. The Secretariat will encourage the integration of knowledge produced from novel research methods, including non-invasive methods and remote sensing technologies as well as advanced mathematical modelling techniques to increase data flow efficiency on wildlife trade and health risk but also related to the analysis of human-wildlife dynamic interfaces. This long-term research may yield new assessment methodologies, ultimately enhancing our ability to predict and prevent pandemics.
How do you envision fostering collaboration among the diverse membership and stakeholders of the Alliance?
Do you intend to include new member groups?
We need to be mindful of the different membership mechanisms between WOAH as an intergovernmental organisation and the Alliance. We certainly have a great opportunity to bring collaboration between WOAH membership and the Alliance membership and we will invite and create incentives to our members to join the Alliance, but this should not be a condition for collaboration. We will maintain open collaboration channels for government institutions who may prefer non-membership engagement, using WOAH as an intermediate.
Regarding non-governmental institutions, we will encourage the regular expansion of the Alliance, with attention to priority areas for wildlife trade and health risks, leveraging WOAH’s global network and related projects to identify strategic partners, and implement targeted advocacy to ensure balanced representation.
We believe in the strength of results, so eventually an active Alliance producing useful results will be attractive!
What strategies will you use to ensure effective communication and cooperation?
Building on the current Secretariat’s successful model, we will maintain regular information sharing through structured meetings, webinar series, and digital platforms. We will probably develop a communication strategy along these lines, also bringing new ideas from our colleagues at the WOAH Communication Department.
How will you handle differing perspectives?
It is a challenging point. We know that among the current or future members of the Alliance we may have strong and divergent opinions. This is already the case within our membership and the resolution arrives by being science-based and facilitating discussion but sometimes we need to be patient. We are used to consensus building as an international organisation with diverse views and culture, we have a strong culture of listening and patiently building strong common positions. We are vigilant about and set clear boundaries against any miss- or disinformation, propagation of rumours or claims insufficiently proven.
How does WOAH intend to engage underrepresented groups?
How does inclusivity contribute to the success of the Alliance?
There are different levels of inclusivity to consider: the membership and the implementation engagement, and they may not be necessarily the same drivers. From the membership perspective it is essential to have a diversity of opinions and backgrounds and ensure balanced representation across sectors and geographies. From an implementation and outreach perspective, we probably do not need to have all various stakeholders as formal members of the Alliance, but we need them to be engaged to increase the fitness of the solutions that are identified and proposed, as well as resilience and sustainability of the system put in place.
As an international standard-setting organisation for animal health and welfare, WOAH exemplifies inclusivity by engaging a wide array of stakeholders from various disciplines worldwide. With over 75 institutional partners and more than 350 technical partners, WOAH collaborates with national and international political entities, academic institutions, civil society organisations, indigenous communities, and scientific organisations. This engagement is managed not only from the headquarters but also through regional and sub-regional representations, ensuring that diverse voices and expertise contribute to the Alliance’s mission. WOAH’s inclusive approach allows for the development of comprehensive and culturally sensitive strategies to prevent zoonotic spillover and mitigate health risks associated with wildlife trade.
By leveraging the strengths of its institutional and technical partners and implementing One Health initiatives, WOAH promotes a holistic understanding of health that encompasses humans, animals, and ecosystems. This collaborative framework enhances the potential for success in achieving the Alliance’s goals and safeguarding global health.
What steps will you take to ensure all voices are heard?
From a governance point of view, we intend to keep the same open model as currently run by the Secretariat, with the expectation that all members are respectful of others’ opinion, engage in constructive dialogue and share evidence-based information. However, we are aware of the challenges of having proper representation of small groups that can be very relevant in local respects given their knowledge and practice and experience with wildlife (in local contexts). Yet, the solution is not necessarily by integrating those groups as formal members as they are too many and too remote. The path is more a question of sensitisation of policy makers about the importance of local consultations, based on case studies. We should not be naïve, that this requires efforts, and sometimes financial or political interests may prevail, but many organisations are working towards the same direction – for different issues related to the environment – and we should support each other with this messaging as it is often the same groups of people at the centre of interest. Continuing to associate our voice to others will be part of our approach.
Looking ahead: What is your long-term vision for the Alliance, and what key priorities and strategies will you focus on?
Where do you see the Alliance in 5 or 10 years?
In 5 or 10 years we hope that the Alliance, supported by its WOAH Secretariat, will be integrated in the WOAH Wildlife Strategy to support its implementation as an extended arm and will be using WOAH’s capacity as a standard setting organisation for the safe trade of animal and animal products to serve the Alliance’s fundamental objectives. We expect this process to create impactful insights and knowledge to lead to technical guidance and recommendations on the questions of understanding and reducing health impact of wildlife trade with new initiatives and innovative approaches to be developed and tested, building up on the incubator goal.
We hope the Alliance will also benefit from WOAH’s regional presence to strengthen its capacity for regional networking and local adaptation to countries specific needs, supported by stakeholder mapping and connection with relevant organisations.
What major challenges and opportunities do you anticipate?
The political and economic situation worldwide is extremely concerning as there are threats on multilateralism, fundings availability and risk of deterioration of the situation. Lack of available resources is therefore an important challenge, and we will need to be resilient to identify new ideas for resource mobilisation and, if needed, to adapt to new worldwide conditions.
The recognition of One Health remains high in the political agenda of many countries and investors. Animals are estimated to be at the source of 75% of emerging infectious diseases in humans. Therefore, the interest to reduce health risks will remain. Society is evolving, and it will be interesting to consider if drivers for certain patterns of health risk in wildlife trade will also change, especially if people are adequately informed. In addition, new technologies for diagnostic investigations are being developed and could contribute to reducing the cost of generating reliable health data.
What concrete actions will you take to achieve your vision?
We intend to regularly consult members (those of the Alliance and of WOAH) on their needs and seek support to address priority needs either directly through projects inspired by the CONTACT initiative run by the Secretariat, or through projects proposed by members, which can include those led by WOAH especially in the context of the next phase of the Wildlife Health strategy.
We will continue to integrate wildlife aspects in the development of international standards which are particularly used for safe international trade and develop tools and guidelines to support their implementation.
We will keep and enhance existing communication channels and expand them to our focal points for wildlife. When possible and relevant, we will also promote the Alliance work in the context of the activities run by our 13 regional and sub-regional offices. We will run Working Groups and organise regular webinars to exchange experience, trying to engage diverse groups as much as possible.
With which 3 words would you describe your team?
Dedication, professionalism and humanity
How do these words reflect the mission and future of the Alliance?
Dedication because we have the privilege to serve a noble cause, that we share between WOAH and the Alliance: safeguarding global health through science, collaboration and action. Our commitment ensures long-term impact, even in the face of complex challenges.
Professionalism because we are a science-based international organisation, we uphold the highest standards in our work, ensuring credibility and trust among our members and partners, as well as the members of the Alliance.
Humanity because at its core, the Alliance is about people connecting with people —uniting expertise, cultures, and compassion to protect health across species. We believe in the profound responsibility of caring for others, and improving animal health to secure a healthier, more equitable future for all.
These principles guide us as we strengthen the Alliance’s legacy—ensuring it remains a dynamic, inclusive, and impactful force in One Health.
To learn more about WOAH’s work on wildlife and health risks, click here!