New Delhi, 30 May 2022: Immediate and early response to disasters and emergencies are crucial to saving lives. The WHO’s South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund (SEARHEF) since its inception continues to demonstrate its ability to provide immediate lifesaving support in the most crucial and immediate phase of emergencies, supporting COVID-19 response in Bhutan, Maldives and Thailand and Flash Floods/ Landslide response in Timor-Leste over 2020-2021.
“The South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund is a record fast response fund making help available within the first 24 hours for life-saving interventions. 10 of the 11 countries in the Region have already benefitted from the initiative. It reflects the Regional solidarity and commitment of countries to support each other against health emergencies resulting from natural or man-made disasters,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia Region.
Home to a quarter of the world’s population, the South-East Asia Region is also highly vulnerable to natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and cyclones as well as emerging diseases and outbreaks.
The need for having a dedicated funding mechanism in the Region to carry out life-saving activities post a disaster was acutely felt and recognized after the Asian Tsunami in 2004 which affected 6 countries in the Region.
Member countries formally adopted the resolution to set up SEARHEF at the 60th WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, in Thimphu, Bhutan, in 2007 paving the way for the operationalization of the fund a year later.
Designed to provide immediate financial support in the aftermath of an emergency in the Member States for the first three months, SEARHEF aims to meet immediate needs and fill in critical gaps till a larger funding mechanism sets in.
Despite the availability of other funding sources such as Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE), according to an evaluation report published in 2019 SEARHEF is more easily accessible then other funds with similar objectives and stands apart as it is a Regional fund exclusively for the 11 Member States
Since its inception, SEARHEF has released over US$ 6.77 million for 43 emergencies in 10 countries in the Region. Between 2019–2021, US$ 700 000 were released from the SEARHEF for supporting COVID-19 response in Bhutan, Maldives and Thailand and to support immediate health needs due to flash floods and surge in COVID-19 cases in Timor-Leste.
The funds disbursed to date have been mainly utilized towards procurement of medicines, supplies and equipment, deployment of medical teams, health information management, laboratory and diagnostics support, strengthening response capacity and providing management and administrative support.
Emergency risk management has been a Flagship Priority in the Region since 2014 when Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh took charge as Regional Director. Since then, the region has continued to sustain, accelerate, and innovate in approaches to protect people in the Region from adverse impacts of hazards and emergencies.
Coming to the aid of Member countries
The Regional fund has come to the aid of Member countries on multiple occasions. For example, Nepal is exposed to multi-hazards including earthquakes floods, landslides, droughts and fires.
“Having a dedicated fund for strengthening emergency health response in the region has proven extremely crucial for the country as was evidenced during the 2008 Koshi Floods and most recently during the devastating earthquake in 2015. The quick disbursement of funds from SEARHEF helped to fill financial gaps during both emergencies and enabled health authorities to expedite the response operation in a timely and efficient manner. This ultimately contributed to preventing mortality and reducing morbidity from these disasters,” said Birodh Khatiwada, Minister of Health, Nepal.
Patients being treated in Kathmandu, Nepal in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake. ©WHO-SEARO/ A. Bhatiasevi
Director General of Servico Nacional De Ambulancia Emergencia E Emergencia Medica (SNAEM) in Timor Leste, Dr Horacio da Costa Sarmento, said: “For a country with limited resources, and after the 4 April flash flood – major roads were cut-off, electricity and many other facilities including some of the health facilities were heavily damaged by the floods, and as a result, the health professionals were unable to provide the routine health service needed.”
He elaborated: “The Ministry of Health acted swiftly, thanks to WHO support through the SEARHEF– amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the MOH through SNAEM were able to provide immediate assistance such as – medical devices, medicines, IPC equipment, consumables and mobilize the health professionals to provide support to the affected communities in Dili and the municipalities.
In Bangladesh for example, SEARHEF was used for setting up lab facilities during the diphtheria outbreak at Cox’s Bazaar. During the 2017 Cyclone Mora which caused widespread devastation in southern-eastern divisions of the country, SEARHEF’s value addition supported mobile health teams with emergency medical supplies to speed up public health response and strengthen communicable disease surveillance helping reduce morbidity and mortality and contain an outbreak of waterborne and vector-borne diseases.
While in Myanmar post the 2015 floods, SEARHEF support came in handy for rapid response teams of MoH to provide emergency and primary health-care services and reduce avoidable morbidity and mortality.
SEARHEF Preparedness Stream
The fund has also been expanded to address larger preparedness measures such as disease surveillance, health emergency workforce and health emergency teams.
The need to work together to analyse key gaps and identify priority actions has been highlighted as key to effectively respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future pandemics, emergencies and disasters. SEARHEF was identified as a platform that could catalyze targeted strengthening of health security system elements.
“Timely release of SEARHEF by WHO has helped the Ministry of Health, Royal Government of Bhutan in our preparation and response to COVID-19 in the country. The support has enabled us to strengthen our COVID-19 testing services through procurement of equipment and consumables,” said Dr Pandup Tshering, Health Secretary, Ministry of Health, Bhutan.
Challenges and forward planning
Even with all its success, at times, some proposals do not find support as the request does not meet the stipulated criteria for SEARHEF and/or because other funding mechanisms had already been arranged.
Also, If the SEARHEF corpus is exhausted or falls short in meeting the requested amount, then additional resources can be provided from the Regional Director’s (RD’s) Reserve, on the Regional Director’s discretion
While member countries have expressed their interest in strengthening the SEARHEF corpus through contributions, they have highlighted the challenges posed by the economic impact of the ongoing Pandemic in doing so.
As the Secretariat of the fund, SEARO is currently developing a user-friendly platform to facilitate the timely reporting and broader visibility of the fund. Member States through their WHO Country Office have also been urged to submit timely and complete reports on the utilization of SEARHEF disbursements.
This comes in the backdrop of the need for expansion of the corpus of SEARHEF, improvement in monitoring and evaluation of the fund, broadening the donor base for funding and considering the inclusion of the private sector to further expand the initiative. These are key to strengthening SEARHEF to continue being able to provide crucial and immediate life-saving actions for people across the Region.