Knowledge management on Disaster Health Management (DHM) is one of the priority areas in the Plan of Action to implement the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on DHM (POA/ ALD DHM) (2019-2025). The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been implementing the Project for Strengthening the ASEAN Regional Capacity on Disaster Health Management (ARCH Project) since 2016 to assist the ASEAN region in strengthening coordination capacity on DHM. A regional training course on DHM for ASEAN member states (AMS) in Japan was proposed to be implemented in 2022 as a JICA’s Knowledge Co-creation Program (KCCP).

The training curriculum of the KCCP included emergency and disaster medicine in Japan, international trends on DHM, and underwent reviews by AMS representatives of the ARCH Project. Prior to the training, participants were required to prepare country reports (CRs) outlining information on legislation, system and structure related to emergency and disaster medicine, as well as systems to receive international emergency medical teams (I-EMTs).

The four-week KCCP course contained a trial implementation of a four-day training program for receiving I-EMTs and coordination among stakeholders in ASEAN disaster response, based on the regional standard curriculum developed by the ARCH Project, and invited experts in DHM not only from Japan but also from AMS as instructors. Participants analyzed and identified challenges on DHM in their countries, and developed draft action plans (APs) to improve the situation through the knowledge obtained from the program.

The draft APs, the training deliverables, will be shared with the ARCH Project, and used to build a support mechanism to achieve national level targets of the POA/ ALD DHM, and the progress will be reflected in the CR in the subsequent year. The KCCP on DHM is expected to facilitate knowledge sharing in AMS and Japan, and contribute to fostering the culture of mutual learning.