Almaty Gathering stimulated appetite for further cooperation

Each country of the CAREC 11 has its own unique challenges when it comes to health security and health systems, but they also have much in common, including how to prevent another pandemic, respond to climate change, and sustainably finance a high-quality health system that is responsive to shifting population demographics.

Whilst they each work on addressing their own issues, there are also significant drivers of regional cooperation, including historical commonalities, potential for increased employment opportunities, efficiency gains and economies of scale.

The CAREC Working Group on Health meeting held on November 2-3, 2023, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, stimulated countries appetite for cooperation. It brought together 35 participants representing health sector officials from 10 out of the 11 CAREC countries, together with ADB participants and guest speakers.

Meeting face-to-face for only the second time since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Working Group on Health members had the opportunity to update each other on progress under the CAREC Health Strategy 2030, which had been endorsed 2 years earlier, and the Regional Investment Framework 2022-2027, which they’d agreed upon in March 2023.

Over-arching the exchange was informing each other on the climate crisis. There is an urgent need, region-wide, to both adapt to the reality of climate change, and to mitigate its impact on population health. At the Almaty meeting, country representatives presented their country-specific climate-related challenges and identified their most pressing needs for building climate resilience within their health systems. They identified important next steps, including assessments of health system capacity and gaps, formulating national health and climate change adaptation plans, and strengthening multisectoral emergency preparedness and the need for a One Health framework to bring together the human, animal, and environmental health sectors.

During the meeting, the Working Group on Health approved a Repository containing training opportunities on health security across the region. They further agreed on joint actions to tackle climate change and health.

All of these can benefit from regional cooperation, and the meeting generated ideas for adding climate-related activities to the Regional Investment Framework.