Dili: From rabies to dengue, Timor-Leste is reminded that disease threats rarely stay within neat boundaries. They can move between animals and people, through villages and across borders, and expose the gaps between the systems meant to stop them.
In recent weeks, Timor-Leste hosted two significant initiatives to strengthen how the country prevents and responds to such threats under the One Health approach, which recognises that the health of people, animals and the environment are closely connected.
The first, a three-day National Bridging Workshop, held in Dili from 25 to 27 March, brought together more than 50 national and international experts, including public health officials, veterinarians, environmental specialists and government representatives.
Less than three weeks later, many of the officials returned for a second, more operational gathering: a Multi-Source Collaboration Surveillance meeting designed to put One Health into practice.
Quadripartite support for a shared One Health roadmap
The National Bridging Workshop was convened with technical support from the Quadripartite— World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
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National Bridging Workshop on strengthening collaboration between International Health Regulations and Veterinary Services performance © WHO Timor-Leste
“Recent challenges faced by this country, including rabies and dengue, highlight the need for integrated action. The National Bridging Workshop is a vital effort to strengthen coordination across human, animal, and environmental health through the One Health approach and build a future-ready health system,” said Mr José dos Reis Magno, Vice Minister of Health for Institutional Strengthening.
Opening the workshop, Dr Arvind Mathur, WHO Representative to Timor-Leste, framed the gathering as both timely and necessary. “This workshop offers a unique platform to align efforts, address shared challenges, set national priorities, and build a joint roadmap to respond to health threats more effectively, together,” he said, speaking on behalf of the Quadripartite.
Timor-Leste sits at a delicate crossroads. The country's rural backbone of subsistence farming means families live in close proximity to chickens, pigs, cattle, and goats. Animals move freely between villages and across borders. Environmental pressures from changing land use to climate variability are creating new risks for disease spread.
Recent assessments, including the 2024 Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of the country's compliance with International Health Regulations, and the 2025 evaluation of veterinary services, flagged similar weaknesses: gaps in how sectors share information, conduct joint risk assessments and respond when emergencies strike.
The three days unfolded as structured exercises. Participants worked through hypothetical outbreak scenarios, ranging from a zoonotic disease surfacing in a remote village to a foodborne crisis; and mapped existing capacities against 16 technical areas spanning surveillance, laboratory systems, risk communication and emergency coordination.
The workshop produced two concrete outputs: a diagnostic assessment of how the three sectors collaborate, and an operational roadmap that will feed directly into the country's National Action Plan for Health Security.
By the final day, the participants agreed on a consensual roadmap laying out who does what, by when, and with which partners. It is designed to dovetail with the National Action Plan for Health Security and the broader One Health Joint Plan of Action.
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Participants of the National Bridging Workshop engaging in group work and joint problem-solving © WHO Timor-Leste
The National Bridging Workshop method, first piloted in 2014 and now implemented in 58 countries, is designed to help sectors that often work in parallel sit together, identify shared risks and commit to a common plan.
From planning to early warning
That work continued in April with a workshop on Multisource Collaborative Surveillance, held from 14 to 15 April. While the March workshop focused on building a shared One Health roadmap, the April meeting focused on one of its most urgent priorities: detecting warning signs earlier by bringing different sources of information together.
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Multi-source collaborative surveillance meeting bringing partners together to strengthen data sharing and response © WHO Timor-Leste
Disease signals do not arrive in neat packages.
A cluster of fevers may show up first in an outpatient clinic, but the earliest clue might come from a livestock owner reporting unusual deaths or a laboratory flagging an atypical result. Read in isolation, the picture remains incomplete. Read together, the signals can warn of an outbreak before it spreads.
Participants reviewed the current best practices and what has been working well at the policy level up to the practical implementation. They also took stock of where surveillance is falling short, in data quality, tools and frontline capacity, and recommended improvements.
A stronger defence against future outbreaks
Roughly three out of every four emerging infectious diseases in humans originate in animals. Avian influenza, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2 have each underscored that pathogens do not respect bureaucratic boundaries.
“For Timor-Leste, the workshops signal a significant step toward closing long-standing gaps in its health security architecture,” Dr Mathur said, while commending the government for its leadership and describing the country's engagement as “the foundation upon which One Health succeeds.”