Dr. Gloria Balboa, Director IV, Health Emergency Management Bureau, delivers her welcome remarks during the opening ceremony of the 2nd Regional Coordinating Committee Meeting on Disaster Health Management (RCC-DHM) on 9 December 2020 via online.
Participants from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, ASEAN Secretariat, RCC Secretariat and JICA during the 2nd RCC-DHM Meeting on 9 December 2020. The Philippines was represented by Dr. Alfonso Danac and Ms. Janice Feliciano, as designated Philippine-RCC members.
(9 December 2020) – In order to effectively operationalize the Plan of Action to implement the ASEAN Leaders Declaration on Disaster Health Management, the Regional Coordination Committee on Disaster Health Management (RCC-DHM) was established in 2019. The purpose is to develop an effective regional collaborative mechanism for the sustainable development of disaster resilient health system by the year 2025.
The Terms of Reference of the RCC-DHM was endorsed by the 14th ASEAN Health Ministers Meeting in August 2019 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The first Meeting of the RCC-DHM was chaired by Myanmar, as the Chair of the ASEAN Health Cluster 2 in 2018-2019.
As the chair of the AHC2 for 2020-2021, the Health Emergency Management Bureau, as the designated focal point for the AHC2 Health Priority 12: Disaster Health Management, and alternate AHC2 Cluster Coordinator, chaired the 2nd RCC-DHM Meeting on 9 December 2020.
The Meeting provided and informed the participants on the following:
· updates on the development of plan to implement the POA/ALD on DHM in 2019-2025;
· proposed establishment of AIDHM and ASEAN Academic Network under the ASEAN Regional Capacity on DHM (ARCH Project);
· revision of the Standard Operating Procedure for the Coordination of Emergency Medical Teams in ASEAN (ASEAN EMT SOP) and the status of its integration with the SOP for Regional Standby Arrangements and Coordination of Joint Disaster Relief and Emergency Response Operations (ASEAN SASOP); and
· update on the implementation of the ARCH Project Extension Phase and on plans for ARCH Project Phase 2.
At the end of the meeting, the AMS thanked the Philippines and the RCC-DHM Secretariat for the arrangements, and agreed to move the ASEAN disaster health management initiatives forward.