Background
The inter-ministerial committee for One Health (IMCC-OH) is the designated coordination mechanism that brings together relevant ministries, development partners and technical institutes to align multisectoral planning and implementation for One Health in Cambodia. Dr. Yok Sambath, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Health and chair of the IMCC-OH, led the committee’s eighth meeting to review strategic guidance and program progress.
The committee reviewed the final draft of the National One Health Strategy (NOHS) and recommended completing revisions and preparing for official announcement and implementation by the end of October 2026. Studies named RACSMEI, ECOMORE, VIRAGE and ZOPRAC were presented to the committee by Institut Pasteur Cambodia during the meeting.
Key Developments
The eighth IMCC-OH meeting examined four primary agenda items: the final draft of the NOHS, progress on the OH4CAM project, presentations of recent research studies by Institut Pasteur Cambodia, and the committee’s next implementation priorities. The committee instructed the Secretariat for One Health coordination to integrate stakeholder inputs and finalize the NOHS text so that formal launch activities can proceed within the stated timetable.
Institutional Role
Participants included senior representatives from the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Environment, as well as representatives from KfW, the World Health Organization, Institut Pasteur Cambodia, the Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) partner network, and relevant working groups. The meeting record documents the IMCC-OH’s role in steering national strategy development and consolidating multisectoral research findings relevant to One Health policy.
Operational Implications
Finalizing the NOHS will set the administrative basis for subsequent implementation planning and partner coordination, as reflected in the committee’s instruction to prepare for official announcement and use. Ongoing projects and studies presented at the meeting provide technical inputs that the Secretariat is expected to incorporate into the strategy’s implementation directions and monitoring arrangements.
