Follow-up on selected resolutions/decisions of the last three years: South-East Asia regional health emergency fund

Abstract

The South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund (‎SEARHEF)‎ has been established to provide immediate financial assistance to Member countries for meeting their health requirements following an emergency.As a first step, a contribution of US$ 100 000 was received for the Fund from the Royal Thai Government in October 2007. Additionally, US$ 1 000 000 (‎one million US dollars)‎ were approved and allocated in January 2008 under the Regular Budget for the 2008-2009biennium. Efforts are on to mobilize resources through voluntary contributions from partner agencies to enhance the corpus of the Fund. For oversight and governance of SEARHEF, a Working Group represented by each of the Member countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region has been established, the first meeting is of the group scheduled to be held on 5 July 2008. With SEARHEF in operation, WHO successfully met the immediate financial needs of populations affected by the Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (‎May 2008)‎ and floods in Sri Lanka (‎June 2008)‎.The views and recommendations of the Meeting of the Advisory Committee (‎ACM)‎ on this agenda item will be submitted to the Sixty-first Session of the Regional Committee for its consideration.