One Health implementation in Ghana: a perspective on policy development and institutional change

In Ghana, the One Health approach has been recognized as a strategy to strengthen health security. To situate the One Health approach in the prevailing political and institutional structures, this work presents an analysis of the narratives that have accompanied the OH approach in Ghana and enable intersectoral collaborations through the lens of policy change theory. These narratives have implications for steering collective action capacities, strategic foundations, and processes that can drive policy change. Data were collected through reviewing published documents, reports, and gray literature, complemented by interviews and questionnaires with stakeholders. Findings show that existing narratives around One Health policy continue to reinforce institutional silos in planning and implementation. Ghana's One Health policy development represents a significant achievement, having a formalized framework where none existed, and having established mechanisms that bring together previously separate sectors. Yet this study also reveals that current structures may be insufficient for the transformative change that One Health implementation requires. Future research is needed on dimensions that connect policy structures to ground-level realities.