International standards can help turn the One Health principle into actions

At FAO’s Global Conference for Actions on One Health in Agrifood Systems, which is taking place in Rome, Italy 21–23 September 2026, included a session, Tuesday, on the role of international standards in One Health governance. International standards were presented as the practical foundation for turning One Health from a broad principle into action across food, animal and plant health, with speakers addressing one key question: how can standards agreed internationally be turned into One Health actions in national systems, on farms and throughout food value chains?

Setting the scene, two government perspectives – one from Cameroon and one from Switzerland, indicated that standards implementation requires political commitment and capacity. In a recorded message, the President of Switzerland, Guy Parmelin, highlighted Switzerland’s experience in reducing antibiotic use in livestock, and linked One Health to prevention, surveillance and cooperation across human, animal, plant and environmental health. HE Dr Taïga, Minister for Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries of Cameroon, highlighted three key functions of international standards: they provide a common language; they facilitate integrated surveillance and intersectoral information sharing; and they underpin confidence in the safety of food traded internationally. At the national level, Cameroon is already using international standards to inform legislation, and the Minister had three key takeaways from his country’s experiences: international standards must be adapted into national legislation without losing their international relevance; their use and implementation requires commitment at the highest levels and institutional intersectoral coordination; and their implementation must be supported by operational laboratory capacity, surveillance planning and human and financial resources.

Opening the panel discussion of the session, Sarah Cahill, Secretary of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, who was moderating, stressed that “international standards form a critical part of the global One Health architecture” noting the session would address why standards, an important part of governance, matter and what is needed to implement them effectively in support of One health.

The trade dimension provided a bridge between these national efforts and the work of the standard-setting organizations. Christiane Wolff, Counsellor at the World Trade Organization (WTO), explained that the WTO’s Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) has brought food safety, animal health and plant health together since 1995. Its requirements that measures be science-based, transparent and non-discriminatory, she said, allow governments to protect health while facilitating trade. But implementation remains uneven: “I think part of it is probably, as we all tend to think immediately, a capacity issue,” she said, highlighting, however, that low- and middle-income countries appear to have higher adoption rates than developed countries. She highlighted the potential of greater harmonization, suggesting that governments should first consider whether an existing international standard can meet their regulatory objectives when deciding whether and how to regulate.

The three standard-setting bodies covered by the WTO’s SPS Agreement, known as the “Three Sisters” are the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). Representatives for each “sister” outlined how their respective standards contribute to a common One Health architecture. Allan Azegele, Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, focused on food safety, particularly antimicrobial resistance, food hygiene, animal feeding and residues. Codex, he argued, “makes one health operational at the food interface” by bringing different sectors around shared, science-based objectives. For plant health, Enrico Perotti, Secretary of the IPPC, argued that common rules prevent fragmentation: “Without rules. There's chaos,” he said. He stressed that plant health underpins food security, biodiversity and safe trade, and that standards provide a common language for countries to assess and manage risks. On animal health, Dr Baba Soumaré, Deputy Director General for Global Frameworks and Capacity Building, WOAH described standards as “the catalyst” and “the enabler” of One Health implementation. He emphasized prevention at source, stronger veterinary services, disease notification, vaccination and surveillance, arguing that early action can prevent animal health risks from becoming threats to people, livelihoods or trade. The private-sector perspective brought the discussion firmly back to what implementation looks like in practice. Jamie Jonker, Chief Science Officer and Vice-President of Sustainability and Scientific Affairs, National Milk Producers Federation, said companies translate standards into quality systems, contracts, training, audits and traceability rather than simply handing employees international texts. Standards, he argued, need to be “practicable, measurable and implementable”, while industry should feed operational experience back into the standard-setting process.

That led to a broader call to connect systems that already exist rather than create new layers of governance. The panellists discussed joint risk assessment, shared tools, capacity-building and closer cooperation between the three organizations. In the closing discussion, the WTO’s Wolff described regular meetings between the organizations as a way of overcoming silos, while Cahill stressed that the same cooperation needs to happen at country level, highlighting the importance of leading by example. The session’s central conclusion was that the foundations are already in place. To summarize Cahill said, “the principal challenge is not the absence of standards, nor the absence of tools, but to make sure that they're understood, adopted, implemented and used effectively.” The task now is to connect the pieces and ensure that international standards are embedded within national One Health strategies and actions.