“Symposium on Sustainable Territories and One Health: Re-evaluating Public Policies”

Since 1986, the World Health Organization has been encouraging people to think about health in a global way, to act on living environments, to think of public policies favorable to the health of populations.⁽¹⁾. Health is not only a matter for the care sector: 60 to 80% of the factors determining the health of a population are linked to the socio-economic and environmental context.⁽²⁾.

But isn’t health still an unthought of public policy? What place does it really occupy even though it corresponds to an increasingly strong concern of citizens in the context of ecological and social transition which is ours?

Within the framework of the historic partnership that binds them, theADT INET and the LAREQUOI research laboratory of the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines regularly organize colloquiums on subjects relating to public policy and management, intended for elected officials, regional officials, academics and partners in the civilian life.

The next symposium will be held in Paris next May 23, with the aim of supporting territorial leaders on the challenges of ecological transition, by comparing the views of practitioners and academics on this essential subject for the conduct of public policies. More specifically, the ADT INET and the Larequoi have chosen this year to address sustainability from the angle of the “One Health” concept.

The news (Covid19, drought, fires, floods, pollution, etc.) has shown us for several years the absolute need to think and organize public policies differently in a logic of adaptation, mitigation and prevention of risks related to climate change. It is about the health and even the life of the inhabitants, but also about the ecosystems in which they evolve.

The findings are there, it is now a question of implementing effective and lasting solutions.

The national level gives local authorities tools to act: national plans, regulations, guides for elected officials, calls for expressions of interest, etc. But what political and strategic orientations can be given in a specific and complementary way at the territorial level, to give meaning to the actions carried out locally?

The health, the well-being, the quality of life of the inhabitants can be the compass.

For this, we must go beyond the conception of health as the absence of disease, to think of it in a positive way, for itself, as a resource, eminently influenced by its environment. But we also need to go beyond the anthropocentric representation of health.

Since the hygienism of the XIX^e century to the current concepts of “One Health”, “Eco Health”, “Planetary Health”, we are gradually rediscovering that our health is eminently linked to the health of non-humans, to the health of the environment, to the health of our territories. This should lead us to change our point of view in order to seek to act consciously on the interdependencies between humans, domesticated animals, wild animals, their habitat and ours, the soil, the water, the air. Acting for biodiversity or for the climate therefore means acting for human health.

Isn’t it time to redefine health as the way environments, humans and non-humans interact in a single “socio-ecosystem”?⁽³⁾, towards balance and resilience? For local authorities, this requires the cross-cutting and simultaneous integration of health and sustainability to initiate a real “taking care” approach. This presupposes that from the design of public policies, the determinants of health are integrated. In the management of PLU(I), the construction of housing, education, mobility plans… It is impossible to ignore that this concept of “One health care” is not only the business of specialists but indeed that of everyone: citizens as well as those who implement public policies.

Initiatives and experiments have been flourishing in this area for several years, both in research and by communities, or by citizens themselves. But how to capitalize on these experiences, connect them, feed them and help them go further?

The steering committee of the symposium “Sustainable territories and a single health: a challenge for rethinking and evaluating public policies” proposes to begin by clarifying the point of view of scientists on the links between biodiversity, resilience, determinants of health and the notion of the common good.

This will shed light on participants’ analysis of the local experiences presented by communities of different levels, from 5,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, who have decided to act in a cross-cutting manner. The originality will be to enhance this feedback through video capsules, in which points of view intersect on issues that arise for all communities.

The bias will then be to delve into the notions of health-friendly town planning and health impact assessments, which make it possible to anticipate the effects of public policies or specific projects on the health of inhabitants and their ecosystems.

This day will also bring together representatives of associations seeking to capitalize and equip communities, public health and the mutual network. With the active support of the Mutuelle Nationale Territoriale and the VYV group.

Let’s meet, then May 23 at the Vyllage, headquarters of the VYV group, at 62-68 rue Jeanne d’Arc Paris.