The Roles of ARCH Project in the Strengthening of the ASEAN Disaster Health Management

Abstract

Introduction:

The Project for Strengthening the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Capacity on Disaster Health Management (ARCH Project) is the project under the collaborative framework between the National Institute for Emergency Medicine, Thailand, Ministry of Public Health, and Japan International Cooperation Agency. The project aims to strengthen disaster health management focusing on the International Emergency Team (I-EMT) operation and coordination in ASEAN by using various mechanisms, for example, regional collaboration meeting, regional collaboration drill, training, etc.

Aim:

The study aims to evaluate the outcomes which ARCH Project’s activities have been facilitating to strengthen the ASEAN disaster health management.

Methods:

A comparative study is utilized to see the improvement of the ASEAN disaster health management of the current situation and the project’s outputs compared to the previous survey in 2015.

Results:

Recent ASEAN disaster health management has been strengthened in three distinctive dimensions: (1.) national capacity of each ASEAN Member States is being strengthened through the project’s training courses; (2.) the ASEAN I-EMT coordination platforms have been set up to the extent that the progress of developing the toolkits such as the Standard Operating Procedures for the Coordination of EMT in ASEAN is at its eighty percent, while the Database of the EMT and their Minimum Requirements and Qualifications are now at its ninety percent; and (3.) Standard reporting forms (medical record and health need assessment form) for all ASEAN member state (AMS) has been developed and fully completed.

Discussion:

The ARCH Project has been facilitating the strengthening of the ASEAN disaster health management through its capacity building endeavors and the creation of collaborative mechanisms for operations and coordination. These activities should be maintained either under the existing or newly created mechanisms in order to build a sustainable collaborative framework.