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CorrespondenceWorld Bank speeds
Africa’s COVID
vaccination

One Health:evaluation
framework launchedThomas Bollyky and colleagues
suggest ways in which theWorld Bank could acceleratevaccination in Africa (see Nature603, 788–792; 2022). Suchinitiatives are in fact alreadyunder way.
Last year, the World Bank
teamed up with the African
Union, the Africa Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) and others to support
the Africa Vaccine Acquisition
Trust to help countries swiftly
purchase and deploy vaccines
for up to 400 million people(see go.nature.com/37w8je).
Moreover, the World Bank has
supported the Africa CDC since2017, to combat epidemics andadvance public-health priorities.
This support helped the Africa
CDC to play a crucial part intackling the COVID-19 pandemic
from the outset.
The private-sector arm of theWorld Bank, the International
Finance Corporation, has
increased its activities inAfrica. It is helping to fundearly-stage development oflocal manufacturing projects
for vaccines and personal
protective equipment. It is also
contributing to existing vaccine
facilities to build up domestic
capabilities. Further funding
will cover logistics, transport,distribution and cold storage.
The pandemic will not end
until everyone in every country
has access to vaccines. TheWorld Bank Group is committed
to supporting developing
countries throughout thepandemic and to helping them
towards a resilient and inclusive
recovery.

The ‘One Health’ approach aims
to balance and optimize thehealth of people, animals andecosystems in a sustainable way(see go.nature.com/3j7w8re).
However, a dearth of evaluation
tools is hampering applicationof this initiative in shaping
policies and practice.
As members of the Global
One Health Index team of
38 researchers and an expert
advisory committee, wehave developed a framework
for assessing One Healthperformance in guiding
policymaking in local settings.
We used the index to assess
the One Health approachof more than 200 countries
and territories to zoonoticdisease control, food security,
climate-change mitigation andantimicrobial resistance (seeX.-X. Zhang et al. Preprint at
https://doi.org/hq75; 2022).
As well as helping to advancegeneral understanding of thedeterminants and functionsof a One Health approach,the results will enable theformulation of a realistic planfor implementing the principles
globally and for promoting
capacity building where it isneeded.

Christopher Walsh World BankGroup, Washington DC, USA.
cwalsh@worldbankgroup.org

Xiao-Nong Zhou* Shanghai Jiao
Tong University–The Universityof Edinburgh One Health Center,
Shanghai, China.
*On behalf of 6 correspondents.
See go.nature.com/3mmrbxs
zhouxn1@chinacdc.cn

Revitalize China’s
cotton industry

Arctic science
diplomacy maintains
Russia co-operation

China is the world’s largest
producer of cotton, but
productivity is stalling. Weidentify three crop-breeding
factors that could help tocounteract this trend.
China’s cotton production
is being limited by its yielddirected breeding strategies.
These have narrowed thegenetic background andresulted in a dearth of earlymaturing, disease-resistant andhigh-quality traits in modern
cotton cultivars. There is noeffective genetic transformation
platform for developing elite
genotypes (X. Du et al. Nature
Genet. 50, 796–802; 2018),
hindering attempts to tap into
their genomic profiles — forexample, to improve fibre
quality (S. He et al. Nature
Genet. 53, 916–924; 2021).
And technical barriers arecurtailing haploid breeding,which bypasses the repeatedcrossing and backcrossing ofconventional breeding.
Extensive screening of seed
germplasm resources, coupledwith molecular-marker-assisted
breeding, would promotedesirable traits in new cotton
varieties that are suitable
for mechanized production(L. Fang et al. Nature Genet. 49,
1089–1098; 2017). In addition,
establishing an efficient cottontransformation platform and a
haploid breeding system would
accelerate the generation ofpure inbred lines with multiple
desired traits.
Hang Zhao, Xiaoyang Ge,
Fuguang Li Institute of Cotton
Research of the Chinese Academyof Agricultural Sciences, Anyang,
China.
gexiaoyang@caas.cn

Leaders of international Arcticresearch organizations andArctic Indigenous peoples’organizations, from Arctic andnon-Arctic states — including
Russia — contributed to three
webinars held in February
and March. These dialogues
continued despite Russia’sinvasion of Ukraine, conveying
the importance of open science(see go.nature.com/3jkffpe)
with both allies and adversaries
for our shared survival asa globally interconnectedcivilization (see go.nature.
com/3m9n1fq).
The webinar series wasentitled Enhancing International
Scientific Cooperation: ArcticScience and Technology Advicewith Ministries (see go.nature.
com/3jswed7). Funded by Japan’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, withlogistic support from the United
Nations Institute for Trainingand Research, it involved
participants from 43 nations.
After Russia’s invasion, some
representatives from European
countries withdrew.
The discussions inspired
international cooperation andcommon-interest building.
Such informed decision-making
operates across a continuumof urgencies, short- to longterm — from pandemic toclimate timescales — forthe sustainability of all (seego.nature.com/3rivds).
Paul Arthur Berkman Science
Diplomacy Center, EvREsearch,
Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA.
paul.berkman@unitar.org
Jenny Baeseman Baeseman
Consulting, Stoughton,
Wisconsin, USA.
Akiho Shibata Polar Cooperation
Research Centre, Kobe University,
Kobe, Japan.

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Nature | Vol 604 | 28 April 2022 | 625