The World Health Organization (WHO) plays a vital role in coordinating health responses during emergencies as a member of the Inter Agency Standing Committee and leader of the Global Health Cluster. Health Cluster Coordinators are responsible for planning, implementing, monitoring, evaluating, and coordinating with governments to ensure the effectiveness of the cluster mechanism. To enhance capacity among cluster coordinators, co-coordinators, partners, and governments is crucial to the success of the health cluster.
In the WHO South-East Asia Region, health clusters are currently operational in Bangladesh and Myanmar for protracted grade 2 emergencies. Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste are also adopting the cluster approach to coordinate health responses. To enhance capacity among participants, a workshop was organized for national participants, partners, and WHO Country Offices in Health Cluster Coordination. The workshop took place in Bangkok from 23-26 April 2024 and had 26 participants from the mentioned countries.
The workshop began with a self-assessment and covered topics such as the Health Cluster approach, humanitarian response planning, and an introduction to SIMEX and Calian platform. Participants were briefed on PRSEAH issues and WHO’s zero-tolerance policy. The SIMEX focused on disaster readiness planning, establishing national health clusters, needs assessment and analysis, setting up sub-national health clusters
