At PZI, we ground all of our work in a Just One Health approach. Just One Health places justice, primary prevention, and the connections between people, animals, and the planet at the heart of global and local policy, research, and practice.
Just One Health builds on a One Health framework, which recognizes the interconnected health of people, animals, and the environment, as well as the need for inter-professional collaboration.
Just One Health provides a scientific and ethical foundation on which public policies, institutions, and practices can become more socially and ecologically just, and uplift the most vulnerable.
This approach enables a more effective and impactful realization of One Health’s potential by bridging the work of a diverse constellation of public health, environmental, and social justice initiatives.
A Just One Health approach recognizes the connections between rights, health, and justice, and that humans and animals have a right to be free
- from abuse and exploitation;
- to meet their self-determined physiological, physical, and mental needs; and
- to thrive as individuals, families, and communities in natural, safe, and healthy environments.
In doing so, a Just One Health approach also addresses global existential threats, including the climate crisis, pandemics, and ecosystem destruction.
Through an emphasis on primary prevention, we advocate for medical, public health, and research frameworks that address structural inequities and social, economic, environmental, legal, and political factors that influence health, specifically
- access to a safe home and environment;
- clean and healthy air, water, and food;
- healthy and just interactions with other people and animals; and
- the policies and political priorities that shape these social, economic, and environmental conditions.
This approach is increasingly important since the greatest burden of disease and the majority of premature deaths are attributable to preventable factors.
As part of a commitment to ethics and justice, many of our efforts focus on those who are most vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
We can do better.
Learn how.
Read how a Just One Health approach influences our policy work.