Given the increasing interconnectedness and common health challenges across the region, Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries agreed to deepen regional cooperation in health. Regional health cooperation facilitates dialogue and knowledge exchange, leverages economies of scale, harmonization of regulation and standards, and development of joint regional approaches and mechanisms to common health challenges.

The CAREC Working Group on Health (WGH) was established in March 2021 to guide CAREC health cooperation and implement the CAREC Health Strategy 2030 and the Regional Investment Framework for Health 2022-2027 (RIF). The strategy which was adopted by the CAREC Ministerial Conference in November 2021 focusses on regional health security because regional cooperation is critical to address public health threats such as infectious diseases outbreaks.

Following the first on-site meeting of the CAREC WGH, which took place from 11-13 October 2022 in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Working Group adopted the RIF 2022-2027 in March 2023. The RIF identifies priority projects and technical assistance to promote regional health security and cooperation. Post-pandemic countries have begun to strengthen their health system’s resilience and take steps to improve emergency preparedness, e.g. through the development of national action plans for health security and leveraging the pandemic fund. The proposed meeting will review the progress of implementing the CAREC Health Strategy and Investment Framework and identify a work program for 2024.

This year’s WGH meeting will also feature knowledge sharing and exchange on climate change and health (security). CAREC regions are higher than average increases in temperature, and greater variability and extremes in temperature and precipitation, resulting in greater water scarcity, more floods, and droughts, the melting of glaciers, expanding desertification, declines in agricultural productivity, food insecurity, migration, worse health outcomes, and possibly conflict.