With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the past two and a half years have highlighted more than ever the need for a holistic policy approach when tackling phenomena such as zoonotic diseases (infectious diseases jumping from animals to humans). At the same time the way humanity is interacting with its environment needs to radically change to preserve not only our own but also our ecosystem’s health. If the status quo remains, future crises seem unavoidable. The project One Health for the Future explores the phenomena of zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and food safety and security threats, 3 phenomena that One Health aims at preventing and addressing.

In 2021, our first edition of the Global Labs project focused on the topic of noncommunicable diseases and related risk factors such as unhealthy diets, tobacco use, air pollution, or physical inactivity ended in May 2022. After an exchange with professionals from the WHO’s NCD Department, civil society (NCD Alliance), academia (University of Geneva), and the private sector (Price Waterhouse Cooper Switzerland), participants formulated policy recommendations to address NCD risk factors in the future.

Authors: Besma Abdallah, Katharina Beyer, Thuy Duyen Chau, Yannik Gräf, Yuling Lin, Alicia Rieckhoff, Llanos Bernardeau Serra, Nirosiha Sivaruban, Wenqin Zhang