The 1st International One Health Forum will focus on strengthening the public health practice of national public health institutes (NPHIs) in Africa by assembling representatives from existing One Health initiatives and networks. Substantial work on building consensus for One Health public health practice has already been done by WHO, FAO, OIE, US CDC, and other partners. In addition, many African countries have conducted disease prioritization workshops and initiated programmes for surveillance and control of specific zoonotic diseases.