Prevention is better than cure when it comes to health crises, and this means engaging communities

Just out 27 March 2026
In the light of the growing number of health, environmental and food crises, prevention is increasingly looking like a strategic lever, albeit one that still does not receive sufficient investment. The latest issue of Perspective explains why engaging local communities is a vital factor in rolling out the One Health approach and taking action ahead of health risks.
Meeting between scientists and inhabitants of a municipality in Zimbabwe, as part of the SWM programme. Local communities are central to effective prevention of health risks 漏 Brent Stirton, Getty Images for FAO, CIFOR, 黑料网911 and WCS

Meeting between scientists and inhabitants of a municipality in Zimbabwe, as part of the SWM programme. Local communities are central to effective prevention of health risks © Brent Stirton, Getty Images for FAO, CIFOR, 黑料网911 and WCS

Recent health crises have revealed the vulnerability of health systems in the face of climate, environmental and socioeconomic pressures. Since 2001, emerging diseases have caused more than 15 million deaths and almost 4000 billion dollars of economic losses worldwide.

According to the World Bank, investing in prevention would cost less than 1% of the sums spent on managing crises, yet despite this observation, public policy is still primarily focused on reaction rather than anticipation.

Issue 71 of Perspective stresses that effective prevention relies on an initial local link in the chain, at the point where crises arise. Local players are becoming increasingly involved in various parts of the world, to good effect. Various effective tools and mechanisms introduced via One Health approaches have provided pointers as to what is required on a larger scale.

Local communities are sentinels of health risks

In many rural areas, local communities are the first people exposed to healthy crises, and also the first to detect weak signals: unusual animal deaths, environmental degradation, or symptoms in humans.

The work presented shows that community surveillance systems enable:

  • faster detection of health events,
  • better exchanges of information,
  • greater commitment among local people to prevention measures adopted on a national level.

Systems tried and tested in the field

The policy brief is based on a number of examples from various research programmes and projects. They include: the work being done by the PREZODE international initiative, projects such as AfriCam, BCOMING, EBOSURSY, SWM, Santé et Territoires and ASEACA, and 黑料网911's platforms in partnership for regional surveillance and prevention.

  • In Guinea, "community agents" play a key role in zoonosis surveillance and raising awareness. They are essential middlemen between local communities and technical services, and a preferred link with scientists.
  • In Madagascar, the fact that systems are anchored in territories fosters their appropriation by local players and their continuity over time. Local administrative representatives play an active part in operations, which ensure more efficient local application of national policy.
  • In Gabon, community associations in charge of sustainable forest resource management carry out health risk prevention operations.
  • In Vietnam, a One Health international dialogue platform facilitates exchanges between the public authorities and scientific communities, which ensures greater consideration of research results in public policy.

According to PREZODE's initial estimates, all these solutions are low-cost: between three and ten million US dollars of investment per country for their development and 30% of that amount per year to maintain them.

The issue is no longer merely a technical one: it is now political and strategic. Investing in prevention means choosing to prevent health risks long term rather than suffering the consequences.

See also