Although eradication has traditionally been the goal for many infectious diseases, it is not achievable for vector-bone diseases for which multiple epidemiological compartments (urban and sylvatic vector species, domestic and wild hosts, human populations) co-exist and interact in a changing environment. Additionally, although control or preventive measures are available, this may not ultimately impact the success of a programme and lead to the reduction of disease burden. Consideration of socio-economic and cultural factors affecting the livelihood and well-being of farmers and animal breeders can be important incentives for participation or non-compliance. Biological understanding of disease epidemiology is therefore as important as socio-economic considerations of farmers, limitations of stakeholders and communities’ engagement, assessment of attitudes and expectations of the end-users, evaluation of technical tools (diagnostic tests, vaccines, trained staff) and surveillance and control measures. The assessment of these factors should guide the strategic planning and surveillance and control of vector-borne disease programme implementation. Therefore, we present the MAKEDA project (Multi-Actor Knowledge on surveillance and control of Emerging vector-borne animal Diseases in Europe and Africa), regrouping key researchers with expertise on animal and zoonotic vector diseases from leading institutes in Africa and Europe. The MAKEDA project aims at establishing an integrated One-Health approach to characterize emergence and outbreak drivers of vector-borne diseases affecting livestock along an Africa-Europe transect, raising awareness among stakeholders and farmer communities of risks and good practices for surveillance and control, preparing and anticipating current and emerging threats. The originality of the MAKEDA project will be achieved by merging unconventional approaches for surveillance and control of vector-borne diseases (sociological methods, participatory modelling and epidemiology) with classical epidemiological, entomological and microbiological studies to optimize actions in challenging environments. It also owes its originality in contributing towards controlling and monitoring animal diseases by deploying great efforts to integrate numerous inter-sectorial actors into the One Health paradigm and considering of high importance continuous assessment of impact pathway with partners and end-users. To this purpose, the MAKEDA project will link research, national and international animal and public health organizations, and farmer organizations in Europe and Africa to develop. The broad inclusion of experts from animal diseases epidemiology and surveillance, risk modelling and analysis, vaccine development and control strategies, health economy, applied social sciences to livestock disease management and the upstream inclusion from the planning of the project and experiments to implementation and dissemination of the results will ensure involvement of various animal health actors and beneficiaries of the project.