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 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.
Regional health cooperation initiatives in the Greater Mekong Subregion 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 responds 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.
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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.
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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Financial resource mobilization by the Malaria Trust Fund has helped eradicate malaria and build strong foundations for health systems in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
This 5-year strategy identifies operational priorities for health cooperation for 2019–2023. It is a product of extensive consultations with members of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Working Group on Health Cooperation, GMS government stakeholders, and other GMS partners.
The Greater Mekong Subregion Health Cooperation Strategy 2019–2023 was approved by the Ministry of Health of Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Viet Nam; National Health Commission of People’s Republic of China; Ministry of Health and Sports of Myanmar; and Ministry of Public Health of Thailand.
Thailand has adopted progressive policies that guarantee migrants’ access to many essential services regardless of legal status, including education and health care. However, barriers continue to hamper their use of these services in practice, says a United Nations report.
A technical assistance project in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is helping Myanmar eliminate malaria by 2030.
The Department of Hospital Services, Ministry of Health (MOH) of Cambodia organized a Regional Workshop on Laboratory Quality and Biosafety on 14–15 August 2018 at Angkor Paradise Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
The Department of Communicable Disease Control of the Ministry of Health of Lao PDR organized the Regional Workshop on Implementing the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies (APSED III) in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) on 19 to 20 November 2018 in Pakse, Champasack Province, Lao PDR (under L3465/G0516-Lao: GMS Health Security Project).
The Asian Development Bank organized the one day Roundtable Discussion on Regional Investment Framework for Migrant Health in the Greater Mekong Subregion on 5 November 2018 in Bangkok. The roundtable discussion focused on defining an operational regional investment framework and available financing solutions to innovatively address migrant health care challenges and support national and regional universal health coverage.
ADB convened the GMS Health Cooperation Strategy Writeshop on 23‒25 April 2018 in Bangkok to undertake a final review of the GMS Health Cooperation Strategy 2019-2023 in preparation for the circulation to and endorsement by GMS Health Ministers or their respective delegates.
The overall objective of the roundtable discussion was to find solution for more robust health financing mechanisms to ensure better health care access for migrants in the GMS.
