Meeting of the CAREC Working Group on Health, Tbilisi, Georgia

The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) and Caucaus region is becoming increasingly interconnected, with a growing mobile population and rapidly developing urban hubs. These factors make it especially prone to communicable disease outbreaks and epidemics. The resilience of health systems is one the main drivers of health security, which is undermined by gaps in health systems funding, human resources, laboratory capacity and disease surveillance.  Regional health cooperation facilitates dialogue and knowledge exchange, leverages economies of scale, harmonization of regulation and standards, and development of joint regional approaches and mechanisms to common health challenges.

Given the many common health challenges across the region, CAREC member countries agreed to deepen regional cooperation in health. The CAREC Health Strategy with a strong focus on enhancing regional health security was developed with inputs from CAREC countries and development partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank. It was endorsed at the virtual 20th CAREC Ministerial Conference on 17 November 2021, and should be implemented through the Regional Investment Framework (RIF). This framework was presented, discussed and amplified during the Tbilisi conference.

Objectives of the Meeting

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) along with the CAREC Secretariat conducted a meeting to take deep dive on opportunities presented by digitization, innovation and regional health cooperation. COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated adoption of digital technology across sectors, and healthcare has much to gain from it.  They also take stock of the implementation of the CAREC Health Strategy since November 2021 and formulated joint actions. The hybrid WGH Meeting took place on 11-13 October 2022 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The specific objectives of the meeting were to:

• Formulate how innovation and digital technology can be advanced in the region and how they can support implementation of the strategy, and identify a strategic approach on digital health for the region;
• Take stock of implementation of the CAREC Health Strategy so far;
• Prioritize and agree on joint and country-level actions to further operationalize implementation of CAREC Health Strategy by refining the CAREC Regional Investment Framework (RIF) across the pillars of the strategy and developing country roadmaps for implementation