ASEAN Academic Conference 2023 in Indonesia discussed strengthening disaster health management in the region and beyond
ASEAN is committed to Disaster health management (DHM) by strengthening regional cooperation and national capacity in preparedness for and in response to health-related aspects of disasters and health emergencies. The Second ASEAN Academic Conference on DHM was held on 17th-19th October 2023 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to promote education and academic activities through active academic networks and knowledge-sharing which was stated as one of the priority actions in the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Disaster Health Management.
The Conference invited many stakeholders, including ASEAN member states, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM), Japanese Association of Disaster Medicine (JADM) and WHO. The Conference theme was: Knowledge Co-Creation for Resilient Disaster Health Management towards “One ASEAN One Response’’. It served as a great platform to share knowledge and scientific insights, and to discuss possible future collaboration on response capacity building and research promotion through strengthening networks in the region.
Dr Ryoma Kayano, Technical Officer of the WHO Kobe Center (WKC), attended the Conference and stressed the importance of establishing active networks to achieve enhanced regional collaboration and to strengthen the national capacity of ASEAN countries. WKC has started planning a WKC Forum for February 2024 to reflect the results of the Conference and to continue the momentum of the active networks.
More information about the Conference can be found here.