Singapore’s One Health Master Plan

Why One Health matters

In an interconnected world, the health of humans, animals, and the environment are inextricably linked. The One Health* approach recognises this crucial relationship, offering an integrated framework to address complex health challenges that span across these domains.

Singapore, situated in a region that has experienced several significant public health challenges, faces unique circumstances that demand a unified response. From zoonotic diseases like avian influenza to food safety concerns and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), these threats do not respect traditional sectoral boundaries.

Globally, unsafe food alone causes 600 million cases of foodborne diseases annually. Climate change is expanding the habitats of disease vectors, while international trade and travel accelerate the spread of pathogens. These challenges affect not just public health and animal health, but also food security, and environmental sustainability.

Singapore adopted the One Health approach in 2012, recognising that early prevention and detection of health risks require coordinated action across sectors. This foresight has strengthened national surveillance and response capabilities, enabling better community protection through:

• Enhanced monitoring of zoonotic and vector-borne disease

• Improved food safety measures

• Coordinated management of AMR

• Integrated environmental health protection

By bringing together multiple sectors and disciplines, One Health helps safeguard what matters most: the well-being of Singapore’s people, wildlife, and environment. Find more details at:

• CDA's One Health webpage

• What does the One Health Master Plan mean to individuals?

• What does the One Health Master Plan mean to professionals and businesses?

*One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals, and ecosystems.  The approach mobilises multiple sectors, disciplines, and communities at varying levels of society to work together to foster well-being and tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing the collective for clean water, energy and air, safe and nutritious food, taking action on climate change, and contributing to sustainable development.

What is Singapore's One Health Master Plan?

Singapore's One Health Master Plan serves as the national strategy to safeguard public health by acknowledging the interconnections between human health, animal health, and environmental well-being. This comprehensive plan builds upon groundwork laid in 2012 and represents the culmination of collaborative efforts across Singapore's health, environmental, and animal sectors.

Through a series of strategic planning workshops conducted in 2024 and 2025, teams from the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA), National Environment Agency (NEA), National Parks Board (NParks), PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, and Singapore Food Agency (SFA) collaborated to shape this missionvision of thefor whole-of-society approach for cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary collaboration to enhance health resilience for Singapore. The development process incorporated international best practices while ensuring adaptability to Singapore's context. It is intended to be a living document to incorporate stakeholder feedback over time.

One Health Strategic Pillars

The One Health Master Plan is built upon three fundamental strategic pillars that guide the approach to protecting Singapore's health: 

Strategic Pillar 1. Engagements 

• Communications: We develop targeted messages to help everyone understand and act on health issues.  

• Networking: Through active networking, we build collaborative relationships across disciplines and borders.

• Leadership: Singapore also takes a leadership role on the global stage, sharing our One Health approaches and experiences with other nations.  

Strategic Pillar 2. Sector development 

• Partnerships: We gather local and international partners from industry, professional groups, and communities to put One Health principles into practice. 

• Education: Our education programmes help build expertise across different fields, with specific training designed for various roles and responsibilities in protecting public health.

Strategic Pillar 3. Insights 

• Research: Our research teams conduct studies across multiple disciplines to fill knowledge gaps and create practical policies and actions. 

• Information: We enable different agencies to share important health-related data, helping us make better decisions and assess risks more effectively. 

• Surveillance: Our comprehensive monitoring systems monitor human, animal, and environmental health, allowing us to detect and respond quickly to health threats. 

What the framework means to individuals

The One Health approach delivers real benefits to daily life in Singapore. Singapore’s integrated food safety system ensures safety of meals from farm to table, be it hawker centres or restaurants. When residents report sick wildlife or animals in their neighbourhoods, Singapore’s coordinated response system reduces risk of disease transmission to both people and pets. Through collaborative efforts in environmental management, cleaner, and safer spaces are maintained while the presence of disease vectors is reduced in Singapore. 

These everyday benefits exemplify how Singapore's coordinated approach to human, animal and environmental health directly improves daily life and wellbeing. 

What is ONEHealthSG?

ONEHealthSG  represents our nation's commitment to integrated health management. This initiative brings together our various agencies under a unified approach, with 'ONE' in uppercase emphasising our collaborative spirit, 'Health' representing our holistic consideration of human, animal, and environmental well-being, and 'SG' affirming our national identity and commitment.

These two documents complement the One Health Master Plan, charting objectives and sharing Singapore’s milestones in its One Health journey:

Singapore's One Health: Our Highlights and The Charter

Our Highlights

Download Our Highlights to read inspiring stories of how One Health agencies have collaborated to keep Singapore’s community, animals, and environment healthy.

The Charter

Download The Charter to learn about Singapore's One Health partners and their shared mission to protect the health of Singapore’s people, animals, and environment.