Photo: EFE/EPA/Stephanie Lecocq
Mizzima
Communities across eight countries in Southeast Asia gained better access to COVID-19 services, including vaccinations, and they are now better prepared for future emerging diseases thanks to a dynamic 3-year project funded by the European Union (EU).
In 2021, the EU and the World Health Organisation (WHO) agreed to strengthen pandemic response and preparedness in 8 countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
From 2021-2023, the EU contributed EUR 20 million and adopted a flexible, highly responsive approach to how the funding is spent in view of rapidly changing conditions. This allowed WHO to work closely with national governments, and other partners such as civil society organisations, to identify and provide the services that people needed in real time.
The EU-funded, WHO-implemented project was designed to help ASEAN countries respond to COVID-19 and strengthen their pandemic preparedness capabilities. The project also provided assistance for countries to revive disrupted health services and, in the longer term, helped achieve progress towards universal health coverage by strengthening various components of health systems.
Over the three-year project, each country focused on the areas of pandemic preparedness and response that most needed strengthening, responding to the evolving needs of their communities and health systems.
In Myanmar, risk communications and community engagement were a strong feature of the three-year project which significantly enhanced pandemic preparedness and response by focusing on risk communications and community engagement. Surveillance, risk assessment, and contract tracing capabilities were all strengthened.
Risk communications and community engagement were strong features of the project in Myanmar where 10,000 posters were put up and 5,400 kits were distributed to flood and conflict affected populations
WHO’s open course on Risk communications essentials was translated into the local languages to mobilise community volunteers and local service providers. In Myanmar, activities were conducted through civil society organisations, and WHO worked with World Vision to train a team of migrant health volunteers
who provided important health services to over 5,800 members of Thailand’s migrant communities, many of whom are from Myanmar.
When Thailand’s second wave of COVID-19 emerged in a major residential area of migrant workers, it became clear migrants and refugees needed to be the focus of additional attention. Thailand has many migrant workers arriving across the borders of neighbouring countries, many of whom were not automatically entitled to free health services.
The project team built customised COVID-19 services for migrants, including setting up telephone hotlines in four languages, helping all migrants get vaccinated, and strengthening coordination and partnership with health authorities, the Migrant Working Group, WHO, and other key stakeholders.
In 2022 for example, the project supported active COVID-19 case finding and facilitating access to vaccination for over 3,000 migrants in 45 districts across Thailand. The project also trained and supported migrant health workers to operate the hotlines, so that migrants could feel confident and comfortable calling and talking.
The EU-funded, WHO-implemented project also helped achieve progress towards universal health coverage by strengthening various components of health systems and assisting countries to revive disrupted health services.
