Long Heng: Cambodia hosts international exercise to prepare for severe pandemic

Cambodia to host international exercise to prepare for severe pandemic


Cambodia in cooperation with secretariat of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will shortly host a pandemic preparedness and response exercise focusing on managing the impacts of severe pandemics on societies, governments and organizations in the Southeast Asian region.



This is the first time and historic event for the country that will host the global issues like heath of people in region and communicable diseases involved with other sectors in societies,” Ros Sovann, deputy secretary general of disaster management committee of Cambodia told SEAW by phone. Cambodia is one of the countries that set up the plan of prevention of communicable diseases combined with other impacts on social and economic issues of the country,” Ros added.

In this event, we also need to review our plan in disaster and communicable disease of all countries in region and major points will be added in the national pan. We will review the weak and strong points for our region on disaster management and measures of prevention of severe pandemic, “he stresses.

He added that the exercise, which is a first of its kind anywhere in the world, will take place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 16-20 August 2010. It is expected to attract over 170 high-level participants from governments, UN agencies, international bodies and non-governmental organizations.
“The unprecedented event aims to improve the capabilities of ASEAN Member States, both individually and collectively, to prepare for and respond to a severe pandemic with potentially devastating effects on the region. The exercise also sets out to improve multi-sectoral preparedness and response at the country, regional and global level among the Member States and other international actors,” he said, a severe pandemic could have hugely damaging effects on the Southeast Asia region. While many countries are engaged in meeting such a threat, much of the focus in the past has been on health area preparedness.
“ASEAN Members States increasingly recognize that non-health sectors can also be gravely affected, impeding a government’s capacity to respond to a pandemic. This thinking has led to the need to come together to identify the gaps in pandemic preparedness, and to strengthen collaboration and coordination among Member States.
In expressing his appreciation for the event and emphasizing its importance, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, said in the statement dated in August 10. ‘the table-top exercise will help us fulfill the wishes of our ASEAN leaders for our region to be ready in times of pandemics. We will use the exercise to identify our gaps in pandemic preparedness and prepare for a regional pandemic preparedness plan as called for in the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint. Lessons learnt from this exercise can be used not only for cases of pandemics but also for other severe events affecting our region, such as natural disasters.’ Dr. Surin added.
Dr. Nhim Vanda, Senior Minister, First Vice President, National Committee for Disaster Management, Royal Government of Cambodia, emphasized the value of the event to the region; ‘Cambodia was one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to focus its preparedness efforts on non-health sectors. This event provides the opportunity to bring the multi-sector preparedness focus to a regional level and set an example that can be followed on a global front.’
The trans-boundary nature of pandemics means that they seldom remain isolated within a single country. Effective regional arrangements are imperative to ensure the continuity of operations and subsequent security of a country during a pandemic. The pandemic preparedness and response exercise aims to strengthen these arrangements.

The ‘Southeast Asia Regional Multisectoral Pandemic Preparedness and Response Table Top Exercise: Managing the Impact of Pandemics on Societies, Governments and Organisations’, is being funded with support from the USAID.

The statement of UN, and USAID highlighted that 9 of the 10 ASEAN Member States will be represented at the event. Governmental representatives from a number of observer states are also participating in the exercise, including officials from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and the United States and Senior representatives and leading experts from regional intergovernmental organizations, UN agencies, other key international bodies and NGOs responding to animal and pandemic influenza will also participate. Participating organizations include the African Union (AU), the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union (EU), and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It said that “The exercise, which is a first of its kind anywhere in the world, is expected to attract over 170 high-level participants from governments, UN agencies, international bodies and non-governmental organizations.”

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