The health of humans, animals, and the environment is vitally interlinked. A majority of emerging and endemic human diseases have their origins in animals, wild or domestic, be they transmitted directly, through food or the environment. The World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), recently joined by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), are the main international organizations responsible for proposing references and guidance for the prevention and response to zoonotic diseases and other health risks at the human-animal-environment interface. Together, they have been active promoters and implementers of an intersectoral collaborative approach between institutions and systems to prevent, detect, and control diseases among animals and humans.

In 2014, WHO and WOAH started to develop the National Bridging Workshop (NBW), bringing together human, animal, and environmental health sectors. The method supports the development of a joint and consensual Roadmap guiding short-term activities for improved coordination between these sectors. As of January 2024, NBWs have been conducted in 54 countries. Cambodia organized its NBW in August 2023. The key output of these NBW is an initial NBW Roadmap, a joint action plan that the animal health, environment, and human health sectors have developed jointly to improve their collaboration. NBW roadmaps may serve to directly guide countries’ work to strengthen IHR core capacities or provide input to broader strategic and operational national health security action plans.

In 2020, WHO, WOAH, and FAO initiated a second phase of the NBW Program, focusing on the follow-up of the NBWs, the monitoring of the implementation of the NBW Roadmap, and in-country support (both technical and financial) for this implementation.