Disasters often result in significant
impacts on people’s health and cause the
loss of many lives. Every new threat or
disaster reveals the extent of challenges
that remain in managing the health risks of
disasters.
ADPC’s Public Health in Emergencies (PHE)
team aims to improve health outcomes of
communities at risk of emergencies and
disasters. In collaboration with our
partners, PHE develops and implements
capacity building projects and training
programs which address continuing and
emerging challenges in health emergency
management at regional, national,
sub-national and community levels. PHE
programs help to strengthen health emergency
management systems by building relationships
between health disciplines and by
integrating the health sector into
community-wide disaster management systems.
ADPC offers training and capacity building
programs across the breadth of health
emergency management. We offer project
services by drawing upon the collective
expertise of PHE and other ADPC teams, and
our extensive network of technical experts
who apply their knowledge and experience in
the development, delivery and review of
joint projects.
ADPC provides diverse quality learning
opportunities for health managers, technical
specialists, facilitators and community
health workers to build their knowledge,
skills and attitudes for managing health
risks and public health consequences of
disasters, communicable disease emergencies
and conflict situations. PHE programs help
to strengthen health emergency management
systems by building relationships between
health disciplines and by integrating the
health sector into community-wide disaster
management systems.
With our institutional partners and an
extensive network of health emergency
management specialists, ADPC has developed
and implemented training courses and
projects in countries and communities around
the world.
Inter-regional and National Public
Health and Emergency Management in Asia
& the Pacific (PHEMAP) courses. These
courses focus on improving the
management and coordination abilities of
public health emergency managers in
their roles as risk managers, program
managers, operations managers and
leaders. ADPC has also conducted the
First National PHEMAP Course
Coordinators workshop to strengthen the
linkages between the Inter-regional and
National PHEMAP courses and provides
support for national PHEMAP courses in
Asia.
Public Health in Complex Emergencies (PHCE)
course is designed for health personnel
working with refugees and internally
displaced persons in complex
emergencies.
Hospital Emergency Preparedness &
Response (HEPR) course assists health
service managers and medical personnel
with health facility planning and
managing large numbers of casualties.
Basic Emergency Response Course (BERC)
which combines training of trainers and
community level training to build health
and medical emergency response
capability in communities (associated
with ADPC projects on Urban Disaster
Risk Management).
Management of the Dead and the Missing
in Disasters (MDM) workshop addresses
the multisectoral dimensions of managing
missing persons and dead bodies, such as
disaster victim identification,
management of health risks, cultural
traditions for burials, and psychosocial
support for relatives.
Scoping study on the psychosocial and
disaster mental capacities and capacity
development activities in Asia
Nutrition of Children and Mothers in
Disasters (NCMD) course which enables
participants to train other health staff
on managing nutritional needs in
disasters.
Disasters and Development (D&D) course
for health and development professionals
and focusing on integrating health
emergency risk management and
sustainable development.
WHO Fellowships and study tours for
senior health officials from the
regions, eg. Myanmar, DPR Korea.
Epidemic and pandemic preparedness has been
an increasing focus of our activities, and
has brought new partnerships and projects
such as:
Strengthening Community-based Management
of Avian and Human Influenza, a
knowledge generation project, with our
partners in the AHI-NGO-RC/RC
Partnership, namely CARE, IFRC and IRC
Health Care Facility Emergency
Preparedness and Response to Epidemics
and Pandemics (HCF-EPREP) which
strengthens health care facility
emergency planning for communicable
disease emergencies, with a focus on
pandemic influenza
Emerging Zoonotic Diseases which focuses
on the development and testing of tools
for assessing risk and capacity
assessment tools.
Exercise Management for Public Health
and Animal Health professionals
Development of a training package for
managing health risks of deliberate use
of biological, chemical and radiological
agents (BCR)
The PHE team acknowledges the financial and
in-kind support from many national
government, international, academic, private
sector and non-government organizations. In
recent years, the following donors have
supported PHE projects:
APEC, ASEAN & Kenan Institute Asia
(Exercise Management)
Asian Development Bank (Community based
AHI)
AusAID (Emerging Zoonotic Diseases,
Australian Youth Ambassadors for
Development Program)
Japan International Corporation of
Welfare Services (PHEMAP)
Royal Government of Norway (PHEMAP)
Rockefeller Foundation (Zoonotic
Diseases)
USAID (Public Health in Complex
Emergencies, Psychosocial Support,
Exercise Management)
In addition to our donor partners, the PHE
team has consolidated long-standing
partnerships and continues to develop
relationships with organizations working in
public health. In addition to the program
activities listed above, the following
formal partnership agreements have been
established:
PHEMAP: MoU between WHO-SEARO, WHO-WPRO
and ADPC was extended in June 2006 for 3
years.
Public Health in Complex Emergencies: a
MoU was signed by ADPC, American
University of Beirut (Lebanon),
Institute of Public Health, Makerere
University (Uganda), International
Rescue Committee and World Education
Inc.
Thammasat University: a MoU was signed
with the new Faculty of Public Health at
Thammasat University, Thailand.
ADPC is a partner with CARE, International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies and the International Rescue
Committee in the AHI-NGO-RC/RC Asia
Partnership. PHE has also built
relationships with Ministries of Health and
UN organizations (including FAO, UNICEF and
all levels of WHO - WHO country offices,
WPRO, SEARO, Regional Office for the Eastern
Mediterranean (EMRO) and with WHO
Headquarters in Geneva). The PHE team is
also working closely with NGOs, other
Ministries and schools of public health.
The PHE team has welcomed participants to
our training courses from over 25 countries
in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe,
Pacific and the Americas. Our recent
projects have focused on Bhutan, Cambodia,
China, DPR Korea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Lao
PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan,
Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia
and Vietnam.
