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.
Health Cooperation
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.
Related
Focal Persons at the Asian Development Bank
- Rikard Elfving
Head, WGHC Secretariat
Sr. Social Sector Specialist
Human and Social Development Division
South Asia Department - Kyi Thar
Public Health Specialist (Consultant),
Human and Social Development Division
Southeast Asia Department
- Mario Randolph Dacanay
Regional Coordinator/Health Cooperation Specialist (Consultant)
Human and Social Development Division
Southeast Asia Department - Marissa Espiritu
Finance and Logistics Specialist (Consultant),
Human and Social Development Division,
Southeast Asia Department/GMS Secretariat
Send inquiries to GMS Secretariat.
Human Resource Development
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:
- Refocus the working group and its approach, given the new strategic direction toward health cooperation.
- Continue to respond to demand for analysis and similar initiatives in higher education at the country level.
- Cooperate with other development partners with expertise on labor and migration.
- Integrate social development across all sectors of the GMS.
- Develop the scope for a new Working Group on Health Cooperation.
Related
- Strategic Framework and Action Plan for Human Resource Development in the Greater Mekong Subregion (2013–2017)
- Strategic Framework and Action Plan for Human Resource Development in the Greater Mekong Subregion (2009-2012)
- Summary of Proceedings
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.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) organized the Regional Workshop on Improving Laboratory Services and Infection Prevention and Control in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) on 4 to 5 June 2018 in Mandalay, Myanmar. The participants were government officials, laboratory services focal persons, infection prevention and control experts from Ministry of Health of Cambodia, Lao PDR Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam; and representatives from ADB and development partners (JICA, USAID, FAO and URC).
The overall objective of the workshop was to improve the quality of laboratory services and infection prevention control capacity within GMS related to emerging and infectious diseases and communicable disease control.
This is the summary of proceedings from the second meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-2) in Yangon, Myanmar on 10 to 11 December 2018.
The second meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-2) will be held in Yangon, Myanmar on 10 to 11 December 2018.
The 4th edition of the Greater Mekong Subregion statistical database booklet features two new chapters: tourism and health.
In the Greater Mekong Subregion, unregulated medicines in the supply chain, including substandard or fake medicines, are fueling resistance to artemisinin combination therapies, the most effective treatment for falciparum malaria.
Japan and the five Southeast Asian countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion adopted the Tokyo Strategy 2018 at the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting in Tokyo on 9 October.
Disruptive technologies, such as Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, have the potential to bring about rapid, self-sustained economic growth for countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
Economic zones are growth engines of the Greater Mekong Subregion, stimulating economic activity and creating jobs. Yet, not much attention has been given to the social and health aspects of economic zone development until recently.