Alain Boinet – You are organizing at the beginning of April an important One Health conference in Lyon, can you present this event to us, its reason for being and its objectives.
Benoit Miribel :
We are a partner of the General Secretariat which organizes the Presidential One Health Summit on 7 April in Lyon. We are in charge in particular of organizing the Civil Society session on the morning of 7 April upstream of the presidential segment which will take place in the afternoon.
The General Secretariat of the One Health Summit is attached to the Elysée following the commitment made by the President of the Republic in May 2025 and is part of the continuity of the annual One Planet Summit since 2017.
On the bases built by the OSH Forum since the pandemic, we open to all civil society professionals, the possibility to participate in the construction of recommendations and solutions in link with the priorities retained for this One Health Summit : Infectious Diseases, Vectors and Antimicrobial Resistances (AMR) / Non-Communicable Diseases / Sustainable Food System and Pollutions. All with transverse approaches on Data, Governance, Financing etc…
From the recommendations of the last forum « OSH for All Lyon 2025 » that we organized at the beginning of last November in Lyon, we are currently preparing a collective positioning document of Civil Society on One Health issues. It will make it possible to bring together a plurality of local and international organizations on the priorities and the recommendations to organize the necessary transitions.
Alain Boinet – How does humanitarian action fit into One Health and during this conference.
Benoit Miribel :
The OSH Forum currently includes 10 international working groups of which one is dedicated to the One Health approach in humanitarian contexts. This working group is co-led by Davide Ziveri from the NGO Humanity & Inclusion Belgium with Rafael Luis Ruiz de Castaneda and Isabelle Bollon from the University of Geneva. They published last year a Position Statement with a Call for Action that one can find on our site and that of their organization.
If humanitarian organizations have gradually started to integrate the Climate issue over the years, it seems important to us today to be able to broaden it to a more holistic approach which can take into account all living things in humanitarian contexts as elsewhere.
Let us recall that the OSH Forum starts from Science to see the necessary adaptations in our Societies in a spirit of Solidarities in order to be able to accompany the indispensable transitions in face of our environmental, health and social issues.
Alain Boinet – Do you have examples of ongoing research on One Health at the crossroads of human, animal and environmental health ?
Benoit Miribel :
Yes, examples are not lacking since I recall that the dynamic of the OSH Forum which was launched from Lyon in 2020 since the pandemic, is to start from Science, from what researchers tell us with this reality of a convergence between human, animal and environmental health.
Progress is being made in diagnosis, data processing, markers like those which make it possible to monitor chemical pollution of water etc.. The microbiome which passes from the soil to our intestines via food and is better and better monitored and researchers need to advance on the crossing of genomics and exposomics linked to the evolution of our environment. As a member of the environment commission of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) I was co-rapporteur of an Opinion on Diffuse Pollutions which highlights 16 recommendations, from scientific data and our current practices. This Opinion can be downloaded from the CESE site and also shows the need for better coordination between the different agencies concerned.
Alain Boinet – Likewise, to make this concept concrete, can you give us an example of a program currently being implemented.
Benoit Miribel :
Among the observations of Working Group 9 of the OSH Forum which deals with One Health issues in humanitarian contexts, the mapping established shows that One Health practices are more numerous in ongoing projects displayed as such. This shows a growing appropriation of One Health practices with a need for clarification, training and harmonization of good practices and standards.
Examples of ongoing projects are not lacking and I can cite the one which aims to reduce health, environmental and social risks linked to gold panning in Kédougou (Senegal). It is in a phase of co-construction between international partners (Handicap International, GERES, GRPD, Bioforce) and local actors (KEOH, University of Ziguinchor, One Health Committee of the Prime Minister’s Office, regional and sectoral authorities, Niokolo-Koba National Park, etc.). This project is under construction with a participatory process and is still looking for the necessary funding for its implementation. The question of funding for One Health approaches is taken into account at the AFD with also a strong support since 2023 for the development of the OSH Forum, but other international donors also need to be able to evolve to allow on the ground, the implementation of truly transdisciplinary programs.
On this point, the AFD is in charge of organizing a session on One Health funding in Lyon on the morning of 7 April in synergy with the Civil Society session organized by the OSH Forum.
By the way, we see that Senegal has set up a One Health secretariat within the Prime Minister’s office which links the different actions to be carried out. The current Minister of Health in Senegal has spent a large part of his career on environmental issues.
We can also cite the action of the PASO association (Colombia) in the Venezuelan immigration zones with the initiative “Mobilizing local networks for climate-driven sustainable development” which uses a One Health approach to strengthen community resilience through reforestation, water management, sustainable economic production and conflict transformation.
On the research side, there is currently the study “People, Livestock and Climate Crisis” conducted by Yushan Li (University of Geneva) in the refugee camps of Kakuma (Kenya) and Sayam Forage (Niger). This research highlights the interconnections between human, animal and environmental health, and underlines the necessity of integrated humanitarian interventions.
Faced with the reduction of international funding, we know that we must strengthen our alliances and pool our means. It is Science which shows us that living things are interconnected and require a global approach. We need verticality in terms of expertise but always within the framework of a horizontal approach which seems to me still lacking in a general way because of our modes of organization, often in silos.
© PAM/Evelyn Fey Senegal’s farming communities restore degraded lands to counter the effects of climate change.
Humanitarian contexts and crisis situations do not escape this reality especially since climate change also causes growing natural disasters. If the OSH Forum started from Lyon in 2020, let us recall that it has since its origin been totally inscribed in an international, transdisciplinary, borderless dimension with today all regions of the world connected on these issues. Much more than us here in Europe, the countries which have faced for a long time multiple difficulties on the health, environmental and social level, are forced to have a more transdisciplinary approach. If the richest countries have been able to give financial orientations for decades, often according to their health priorities, we see more and more the need that this can be done in a more concerted way. Needless to remind the readers of Défis Humanitaires, the number of people who die for lack of drinking water, sanitation, under-nutrition or by a bad diet which means that 2/3 of the obese are today found in developing countries with the diseases that result from it. To this is added climate migrants, various pollutions with its effects on our health and the environment.
Alain Boinet – What are the next steps and how do you wish to conclude this interview.
Benoit Miribel :
When we learned at the beginning of 2025 of the intention of the President of the Republic to organize a Presidential One Health Summit, we sent him a letter on 30 April 2025 to invite him to consider the interest of holding it in Lyon in an indispensable public-private synergy for a true implementation of projects of the One Sustainable Health (OSH) type.
On 3 November on the occasion of World One Health Day, we were able to project the message received from President E.Macron officially announcing the organization of the One Health Summit in Lyon on 7 April. It is a recognition for the public and private professionals engaged since the pandemic in this OSH Forum carried by the Une Santé Durable pour Tous Foundation, hosted at the Institut Pasteur.
After this essential phase of advocacy and operational recommendations which mobilized us until here, the commitments which will be announced during the Summit on 7 April by the different invited States, will be an important support for the co-construction phase of projects. On our scale, we have started it with the opening of the OSH Fabrique which will hold a special day on 8 April at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (CIRC), partner of the OSH Forum.
The development of the OSH Fabrique should contribute to connecting different professionals in a borderless and transdisciplinary approach in favor of living things to build together projects in favor of a sustainable health for all !
Documents annexes :
Letter to President Emmanuel Macron – 30 April 2025
Reply letter from Rodrigue FURCY/Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic
Healthy Planet for Healthy Life – OSH Forum – Déc 2025
Summary Sheet – Diffuse Pollutions and Biodiversity – CESE 28 janvier 2026
Benoit Miribel :
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Benoit Miribel chairs the Une Santé Durable pour Tous Foundation, launched on 1 September 2020 in Lyon and placed since 4 July 2024 under the aegis of the Institut Pasteur (Paris).
He has been a member of the Economic Social and Environmental Council (CESE) since May 2021 within which he represents the sector of funds and foundations by delegation of the French Center for Funds and Foundations (CFF). He is a member of the Europe and International Affairs commission ; of the Environment commission and of the Territories, Agriculture and Food commission.
He chaired the French Center for Funds and Foundations (CFF) (2015-2022) of which he became Honorary President.
He was previously, Director General of the Fondation Mérieux (2007-2017) then Public Health Director of the Institut Mérieux (2018-2020).
Since June 2013, he is Honorary President of Action contre la Faim (ACF), association which he chaired (2010/2013) and led (2003/2006) after having been geographic manager for South-East Asia/Southern Africa and Balkans, then communication and development director.
He was Director General of the Bioforce Institute (1997/2002) and began his professional activity in the Development department of Lyon Airport (1988/1992).
He chairs the Humanitarian and Solidarity Logistics Platform « BIOPORT » of which he is at the origin as well as the association EARTHWAKE, co-founded with actor Samuel le Bihan for plastic recycling.
He is co-founder of the bilingual review Alternatives Humanitaires launched in 2016, of the Forum Espace Humanitaire (FEH) launched in 2009 and of the Groupe de Réflexion Urgence Post-Crise (GRUPC) launched in 2008. He is a member of the think-tank Santé Mondiale 2030 ; of the think-tank Re-Sources (water-sanitation), of the Initiative for the Future of Great Rivers (IAGF) ; of the NGO Friendship (Bangladesh) ; of the association Lire et Sourire.
Former member of the board of directors of European Foundation Center (EFC become PHILEA) and of VOICE (European network of professional humanitarian NGOs).
He chaired the Evaluation Committee of the French Humanitarian Emergency Fund (2019/2021). He was a member of the Haut Conseil de la Coopération Internationale (HCCI) until 2007 where he chaired the Emergency and Post-Crisis commission.
He was also a member of the White Paper Commission of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (2008) and of the National Human Rights Commission (CNCDH from 1998-2001 then 2011-2013).
He was an auditor within the Romain Gary class (2025) of the Collège des Hautes Etudes Académiques et Diplomatiques (CHEAD-MEAE).
He graduated from IEP Lyon and from a DEA – International Relations (Panthéon Sorbonne).
Knight of the Legion of Honor (2008).