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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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.
Regional Workshop on Laboratory Quality and Biosafety
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.
Implementing the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies (APSED III) in the Greater Mekong Subregion
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).
Roundtable Discussion on Regional Investment Framework for Migrant Health in the Greater Mekong Subregion
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.
GMS Health Cooperation Strategy Writeshop
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.
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.
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
