Theory of change for building stronger wildlife health surveillance systems globally

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases affecting wildlife have highlighted the need for wildlife health surveillance (WHS), given the interconnected role of wildlife in maintaining the health of natural resources, agriculture, and human populations. Although global policies and guidelines exist, a key gap remains in the implementation of WHS systems at local and national levels. A working group of local, national, and global stakeholders in WHS was established to address this gap. In this Viewpoint, we report a theory of change (ToC) developed to support implementation of WHS from local to global scales. Using established methods for developing a collaborative ToC, we leveraged our expertise and identified six transformative pathways to be implemented via collaborations across scales and contexts: mindset change, policy and investment, evidence-based practice, user-driven technologies, capacity enhancement, and mobilisation of a global community of practice. This ToC serves as a roadmap for the development of effective WHS systems that support adaptive management and implementation. WHS is fundamental to understanding the impact of health threats on biodiversity, domestic animals, and humans. This ToC also presents an approach to operationalise the integration of wildlife health into collaborative One Health surveillance systems.