Details

Funding

Project Description

The TA will strengthen health cooperation in the GMS by developing a subregional framework and strategy for health cooperation, and by establishing a working group on health cooperation to oversee the implementation of the strategy and ensure its effectiveness. The proposed TA will also promote knowledge exchange and capacity development.

Progress (as of March 2021)

Ongoing. The TA supported the three GMS WGHC meetings organized since 2018. Consultations with Viet Nam to prepare for the fourth WGHC meeting in 2020 are ongoing. The Strategic Results Framework to monitor and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the GMS Health Cooperation Strategy 2019-2023 was approved in July 2020. Development of a regional action plan is underway to operationalize the strategy and support its three pillars. The TA continues to support the ongoing preparations for the proposed regional Migrant Health Care Financing Project (also known as GMS Universal Health Care: GMS Healthy Border Special Economic Zones). TA amount has been increased from $1 million to $3 million and its completion date was extended from September 30, 2020 to Septem- ber 30, 2022. The increased amount of $2 million from SERD and EARD is intended to respond to COVID-19 initiatives in the 6 GMS countries. The TA has allotted $100,000 each for Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam to cover activities addressing COVID-19 (i.e., training of hospitals, development and piloting of mobile application for COVID-19 surveillance, piloting for deep-learning prototypes, etc.). The TA has allotted $1 million for the PRC to sup- port immediate and mid-term response to COVID-19. The TA has recently engaged a firm to develop a model for One Health Response in the GMS. ADB SDCC is reviewing a proposal on vaccine development submitted by the National Vaccine Institute. Lao PDR: The $100,000 grant will be used for trainings in management of COVID-19 cases, coordination work with line ministries and other partners, and drafting COVID-19 strategy and annual action plan for 2020/2021/2022. The COVID-19 strategy will be included in the country-s next five-year plan. Myanmar: The $100,000 grant will be used to develop the nationwide contingency plan for COVID-19 response and a work-from- home initiative model for ministries and departments in case of office shutdowns. It will also be used to support an initiative to create health promotion champions in the community for COVID-19 response. Thailand: The $100,000 grant is for four COVID-19 response projects to be completed by end of fiscal year (September 2020): (1) Chroma project - a learning-based COVID-19 monitoring application. An expert has been hired and purchase of equipment to develop prototype is in process. The prototype is aimed to be completed in the next two months. (2) Recruiting two experts (one epide- miologist and one virologist) to support the country-s COC. The experts have been hired. (3) Capacity building of first responder to COVID-19 patient-s transportation Publication of COVID-19 response experience of Thailand as proposed by the Department of Disease Control.

Contacts

News and Multimedia

COVID-19 equipment donated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to to Viet Nam. Photo: IAEA Imagebank (CC BY 2.0)
Source: https://www.greatermekong.org/