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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More than 50 participants from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Planning, and Ministry of Finance of the six GMS countries met on 5 July 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand to discuss the proposed GMS Strategy on Health Cooperation and the proposed GMS Working Group on Health Cooperation.
An extraordinary meeting of the GMS Working Group on Human Resource Development was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 4 July 2017.
Mosquito nets protect children against malaria in Viet Nam. Photo: Justin Mott/ADB.
Five countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion are receiving additional support to eliminate malaria.
Migrant and mobile populations in the Greater Mekong Subregion are often more exposed to malaria and out of reach of the health system. They can also spread the disease as they move within the region. Photo: ADB.
Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Myanmar are on the frontlines of the global fight against malaria.
ADB Lao PDR Resident Mission OIC Steven Schipani and Vice Minister of Finance Thipphakone Chanthavongsa signed the loan and grant agreement in a ceremony in Vientiane attended by other government officials. Photo: ADB
VIENTIANE, LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (3 February 2017) — The Asian Development Bank and the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic today signed an agreement for a $12 million loan and grant package for a health security project.
The 15th Meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Human Resource Development was held on 13-14 December 2016 in Kunming, Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China.
The project will enhance responses to emerging infectious diseases and the management of other major public health threats. Photo: ADB.
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA (23 November 2016) — The Asian Development Bank has approved a $117 million loan to the Governments of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam to enhance responses to emerging infectious diseases and the management of other major public health threats. The Lao PDR government is also receiving $8 million in grant assistance.
The Greater Mekong Subregion Health Impact Assessment project aims to support the elimination of malaria and reduce the risk of communicable disease threats through health impact assessment of large infrastructure projects.
The 14th Meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Human Resource Development was held on 19-20 November 2015 in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
VIENTIANE, LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (17 November 2015) – The Asian Development Bank and the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic today signed an agreement for a $3 million grant to support the government’s efforts to eliminate the spread of drug-resistant malaria in the country.
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