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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Mr. Steven Beck of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) wrote in a blog post that “the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need to support trade to not only move medical supplies but also to bolster economies.” His post asked (i) how we can maintain trade flows at a time when everyone’s attention seems to be focused on tightening borders, and (ii) how we can keep goods moving when the financial systems that companies rely on are under stress.
Supported by a $10 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction at the Asian Development Bank, the Ministry of Health and Sports of Myanmar implemented the Greater Mekong Subregion’s Capacity Building for HIV/AIDS Prevention Project.
This study which was undertaken under Loan 3465/G0516-Lao: Health Security Project was able to establish the baseline data as well as the critical focus areas where quality improvement strategies should be developed towards a district-based laboratory quality improvement program model.
An ADB-financed project supported the human resources capacity of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises Lao PDR and Viet Nam through various training. Photo credit: ADB.
This piece highlights how sustainable tourism development can support the empowerment of women and minorities.
The Third Meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Working Group on Health Cooperation, jointly organized by the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was held on 12–13 December in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved $2 million in new funding to support efforts to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (nCoV).
The funds will supplement an ongoing regional technical assistance and strengthen response capacity in Cambodia, the People's Republic of China, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
The Third Meeting of the GMS Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-3) was held on 12–13 December 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. WGHC-3 was co-organized by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) of Thailand and the ADB.
The Third Meeting of the GMS Working Group on Health Cooperation (WGHC-3) was held on 12–13 December 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. WGHC-3 was co-organized by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) of Thailand and the ADB.
Regional Workshop on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Surveillance System
The Ministry of Health (MOH) of Cambodia conducted a Regional Workshop on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Surveillance System on 5–6 September 2019 at Somadevi Angkor Hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Regional Workshop: Strengthening Risk Communications for Health Emergencies in the GMS
The Department of Communicable Disease Control of the Ministry of Health of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) conducted a Regional Workshop on Strengthening Risk Communications for Health Emergencies in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) on 12 to 13 September 2019 in Xieng Kouang Province, Lao People's Democratic Republic (under L3465/G0516-LAO: GMS Health Security Project).
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
