Countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion aim for Sustainable Development Goals for health. Through the Working Group on Health Cooperation, GMS countries are taking comprehensive, coordinated and proactive approaches to address regional health issues.
The Greater Mekong Subregion still experiences high incidence of communicable diseases and drug-resistant microorganisms. GMS countries also suffer from inefficient health systems due to lack of synergies, economies of scale, and scope; and there are few common solutions to common health problems.
The health agenda of the GMS Economic Cooperation Program Strategic Framework 2030 (GMS-2030) will focus on communicable disease control through cross-border surveillance and modeling, information exchange, implementation of international health regulations, and pandemic preparedness. Since universal health coverage is a critical regional public good, GMS-2030 will aim to accelerate its implementation. This will be effected by strengthening the performance of GMS health systems to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats such as COVID-19 and other emerging diseases; supporting countries to comply with the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations; applying a unified approach to environmental, animal, and human health (“One Health”); strengthening protection of vulnerable communities and migrants; building capacity and cross-border cooperation to address priority health issues; and advancing gender equality to build subregional health cooperation leadership and decision-making policy. GMS-2030 aims to provide a new setting for the development of this subregion for the next decade.
Regional health cooperation initiatives in the GMS, based on the 5-year strategy that identifies operational priorities for health cooperation for 2019-2023, focus on three strategic pillars:
Strategic Pillar 1: Health security as a regional public good tackles the subregion’s vulnerability to acute public health events. Ensuring robust national health systems with capacity to prevent, detect and respond to transnational health threats is the cornerstone of health security.
Strategic Pillar 2: Health impacts of connectivity and mobility respond to health challenges stemming from an increasingly interconnected GMS. Strengthening health systems in border areas where migrant and mobile populations pass and reside is an entry point for programming. Also includes. integrating health impact assessment during project planning and implementation of GMS urban and transport infrastructure projects.
Strategic Pillar 3: Health workforce development builds on the subregion’s existing human resource capacity to address common health challenges. Strong leadership in turn opens opportunities for intraregional capacity building, utilizing the subregions’ depth of health human resource and health programming experience to tackle shared health issues and enhance country efforts to attain Sustainable Development Goal targets.
The Working Group on Health Cooperation seeks to address collective action problems of regional health investments and limited resources for health that tend to prioritize national investments.
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Focal Persons at the Asian Development Bank
Rikard Elfving
Human and Social Development Sector Office
Sectors Group
Najibullah Habib
Human and Social Development Sector Office
Sectors Group
Other Concerned Staff & Consultants
Pinsuda Alexander
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department
Mario Randolph Dacanay
Human and Social Development Sector Office
Sectors Group
Rowena Sancio
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department/GMS Secretariat
Send inquiries to GMS Secretariat.
Focal Persons at the Asian Development Bank
Rikard Elfving
Human and Social Development Sector Office
Sectors Group
Other Concerned Staff & Consultants
Pinsuda Alexander
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department
Mario Randolph Dacanay
Human and Social Development Sector Office
Sectors Group
Rowena Sancio
Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit
Southeast Asia Department/GMS Secretariat
Send inquiries to GMS Secretariat.
After more than 20 years, the Working Group on Human Resource Development was restructured in 2017 to focus on health, given the strategic importance of regional cooperation in this area.
Labor migrants in the Greater Mekong Subregion play a vital role in economic development. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have organized joint virtual dialogues on labor mobility.
Consequent to the review of the GMS Institutional Framework in 2016 and a separate review of the Strategic Framework and Action Plan for Human Resource Development in the GMS 2013–2017, GMS ministers endorsed the creation of the Working Group on Health Cooperation in 2017.
Human resource development, however, continues to be an important sector in the Greater Mekong Subregion. At an extraordinary meeting of the Working Group on Human Resource Development in Bangkok on 4 July 2017, participants agreed on the following key points:
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Factory workers assemble electronic products at Savan Park Special Economic Zone in Savannakhet, Lao People's Democratic Republic. Photo: ADB.
Countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion recognize how a health impact assessment framework can help ensure that both businesses and communities benefit from economic zone development.
This health impact assessment framework serves as a guide to manage health risks and impacts in economic zones of the Greater Mekong Region and address transboundary issues associated with human migration.
There is a need to strengthen health systems to prevent and manage climate-sensitive diseases, particularly among the most vulnerable groups such as the poor, the elderly, women, and children. Photo: ADB.
Climate change poses threats to public health in the Greater Mekong Subregion, which is already experiencing hotter weather, longer dry seasons, and changing rainfall patterns.
The Greater Mekong Subregion is developing a health cooperation strategy that will improve health system performance in responding to public health threats, strengthen resilience to impacts of regional integration, and enhance human resource capacity to respond to priority health issues in the subregion.
Countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion are close to full employment. However, workers in vulnerable jobs are alarmingly high
High-level Launching of the Greater Mekong Subregion Health Security Project
A high-level gathering was organized by ADB on 6 July 2017 at Sofitel Hotel in Bangkok to officially launch the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Health Security Project and endorse the declaration for the GMS health security and future health collaboration among countries in the GMS.
The first meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-1) was held in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR on 13-14 December 2017.
BEIJING, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (20 September 2017) — The Asian Development Bank’s Board of Directors has approved a results-based loan of $250 million to help establish a demand-driven technical and vocational education and training system in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
This is the summary of proceedings from the first meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-1) at Luang Prabang, in the Lao People's Democratic Republic on 13-14 December 2017.
Increased access to health services can help improve outbreak response to malaria and other diseases. Photo: ADB.
Scientists are urgently calling for alternative treatments to a malaria “superbug” that now affects four countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
Greater Mekong Subregion Secretariat
Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division,
Southeast Asia Department, Asian Development Bank
Address: 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550, Metro Manila, Philippines
Telephone: +63 2 8632 4444 Fax: +63 2 8636 2226