title: Ecohealth research in Southeast Asia: past, present and the way forward.
abstract: Ecohealth is a comprehensive approach to understanding health at its human, animal and environmental interface in a socio-ecological systems context. This approach was introduced widely in Southeast Asia (SEA) by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in the late 2000s. Aimed at addressing the problem of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), numerous such projects and activities have been generated throughout the region. Ecohealth is increasingly converging with the One Health approach, as both movements emphasise a holistic understanding to health. We conducted a scoping review by considering all of the Ecohealth programmes, initiatives and projects that have been implemented in SEA since the introduction of the approach, and also gathered information from peer-reviewed literature. The objective of this paper is to review Ecohealth activities within SEA over the last 10 years to address the lessons learned, challenges faced and the way forward for Ecohealth in the region. Activities range from those focusing purely on capacity, projects focusing on research and projects covering both. Achievements to date include, for example, research contributing to the field of infectious diseases in relation to social ecological factors and associated urbanisation and agricultural intensification. Challenges remain at the project design and implementation level, in the available capacity and coordination to develop Ecohealth research teams in the countries, gauging teams' assimilation of Ecohealth's underlying tenets and their translation into sustainable disease prevention and control, as well as in the ability to scale up Ecohealth projects. We suggest that the way forward for Ecohealth should be from a regional perspective in terms of research, training and policy translation using Ecohealth in combination with the One Health approach.
authors.affiliation: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), 17A Nguyen Khang Street, Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Vietnam ; Centre for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER), Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH), 138 Giang Vo Street, Hanoi, Vietnam ; Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Socinstrasse 57, Basel, CH-4002 Switzerland ; University of Basel, Basel, 4001 Switzerland.
authors.forename: Hung
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nguyen-Viet
authors.affiliation: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), 17A Nguyen Khang Street, Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Siobhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Doria
authors.affiliation: National Institute and Animal Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Dinh Xuan
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Tung
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Hein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mallee
authors.affiliation: Integrative Education and Research Programme, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, 10400 Thailand ; Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, North Grafton, MA 01536 USA.
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Wilcox
authors.affiliation: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Delia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grace
keywords: Capacity building; Ecohealth; Ecohealth content; Interdisciplinary; Network; One health; Scientific partnership; Southeast Asia; Transdisciplinary