IAAS Morocco: One Health Youth Conference

Rabat 15/04/2023

IAAS Morocco: National One Health Youth Conference

National One Health Youth Conference: 5 associations, 5 fields of study, One objective, One Health.

The National One Health Youth Conference was a gathering of 5 different international associations, IAAS, IVSA, IFMSA,IFSA, USCA, in order to sign an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), which is a collaborative agreement between the national committees of the five international associations. This conference celebrated the creation of a new historical alliance between students from the fields of agriculture and related sciences, forestry, human and veterinary sciences, as well as dentistry. The signed agreement is intended to serve as a guideline of the points and areas where stakeholders can coordinate and cooperate to achieve common goals in the field of public health and the environment through the One Health approach.

The conference took place Saturday, April15th 2023 at Hassan 2 institute for Agronomy and Veterinary sciences in Rabat, and was co-organised by 5 different Moroccan committees of international associations: IAAS Morocco, IVSA (International veterinary student association), IFMSA (International Federation of Medical students association), IFSA (International Forestry Students Association) and USCA (UM6SS Smile Creators Association).

With an audience of members of all five associations, administrative staff and teachers, presidents of associations presented all 5 of their national committees while stating their work, organization and objectives. IAAS Morocco, showed the importance of projects including the ones related to One Health, education and engagement through networking and representation among the global and national interests of IAAS.

 One Health is an integrated approach to health that recognizes the interconnections of human, animal, and environmental health. This approach was born in response to evidence of the spread of zoonotic diseases between species and the growing awareness of the existence of this interdependence between these three key areas, we are talking about human, animal, and environmental health.

The program of the day included the first presentations of the five associations; IAAS, IVSA, IFMSA, IFSA, USCA by their respective presidents showing the organization, projects, activities and objectives of their organizations while supporting the importance they jointly give to the collaboration within the framework of the One Health approach. Then, the MoU that summarizes the clauses of this collaboration was signed by the presidents of the associations. The last part of the program, and not the least, was a workshop led by the VP of external relations in IAAS world and member of IAAS Morocco, Aya Mounier, a workshop during which the action strategy had been established by the MYAOH (Moroccan Youth Alliance for One Health) to translate concretely the objectives to be achieved under this partnership.