Work

‘Multisectoral socialisation’ in national health governance: An ethnographic study of Singapore’s One Health approach

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The 2025 establishment of Singapore's Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) included creation of a One Health Office (OHO), supporting an existing whole-of-government approach involving five agencies spanning human, animal, and environmental health. Singapore's approach incorporates distinctive features intended to strengthen preparedness, prevention, and mitigation during non-emergency periods. We examined how this approach developed and implemented multisectoral governance of national One Health priorities. This nine-month ethnographic study (2024-2025) involved observations of three inter-agency One Health meetings and eight partner agency engagements, semi-structured interviews with 26 public servants across five partner agencies, and review of eight internal government documents. Data were analysed thematically using abductive coding. We found that Singapore's One Health governance was supported by participant-driven socialisation through 'semi-informal' inter-agency relations among public servants. These were reinforced by a rotational governance structure, Singapore's small size, regular bilateral and multilateral communication, and OHO-led engagement. These interactions enabled workable inter-agency arrangements while progressively strengthening multisectoral governance. Importantly, socialisation processes appeared structurally supported rather than emerging incidentally from formal governance arrangements, challenging conventional assumptions about the relationship between formal structures and informal networks. Singapore's One Health approach demonstrates how multisectoral governance can be deliberately strengthened through interpersonal socialisation. Formal institutional arrangements, including those established through CDA, can cultivate 'semi-informal' networks that foster trust, shared ownership, and consensus across government agencies. For national public health agencies elsewhere, embedding opportunities for sustained socialisation within governance structures may strengthen intersectoral collaboration and collective ownership of One Health priorities. The Singapore experience suggests that informal social processes need not be incidental outcomes of formal governance but can be intentionally enabled through institutional design, with implications for the development and assessment of One Health governance internationally.

Source: PLOS Global Public Health

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0005871

Authors: Matthew Aviso, Youming Ng, James Chan, Panqin Cai, Kelvin Lim, Natasha Howard