Côte d'Ivoire: ‘One Health’ mission
On the occasion of the General Assembly in Côte d’Ivoire and the election of Father Bakary as President of the national Artemisia House, Darling Guidigan, Project Manager and Coordinator for West Africa, visited the country. In the spring of 2024, he met with the new team and travelled around the country to deliver ‘One Health’ training courses in all the local Artemisia Houses.
Meeting the Artemisia Houses of Côte d’Ivoire
Darling Guidigan met the new national team and then travelled across Côte d’Ivoire from east to west and north to south, meeting local AHs, discussing their business models and delivering ‘One Health’ training courses. One Health’ is defined by the WHO as “an integrated and unifying approach that aims to optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems, and to strike a balance between these dimensions”.
Most of the country’s local AHs already have diversified production, efficient production and distribution channels, and effective cooperative models. They are positioning themselves as key players in the promotion of integrated and sustainable agricultural practices. But they are not yet incorporating this integrated approach to human, environmental and animal health. Another essential point is that these local players are financially independent. ‘One Health’ development is therefore a fantastic opportunity to strengthen their economic models, but also to take a major step forward in terms of the overall health of their communities.
AH’s shift to “One Health”
This shift is part of the new direction taken by the Artemisia House at the end of 2023, and is currently being rolled out across the network in pilot, structured AHs.
– human health (herbal tea, Artemisia powder) and multi-products (soaps, oils, creams, Artemisia-based products)
– animal health (feed and Artemisia-based herbal teas)
– environmental health (Artemisia-based biopesticides), agroforestry and permaculture.
Darling Guidigan provided 3-hour training sessions on this new ‘One Health’ vision at each AH, enhancing the teams’ knowledge and opening up new opportunities for diversification.
This summer, following these training sessions, pilot animal health projects were launched for three Artemisia-based products for chickens, quail and rabbits at the Adzopé AH (Société Agro-Pastorale de la ME). The results of these experiments will be used to draw up veterinary technical data sheets for widespread dissemination across the network.
In the coming months, these training courses will be provided systematically in all the Artemisia Houses in the network, alongside the pilot experiments currently being carried out.
