SEARO Region

South-East Asia Region

MID TERM
RESULTS REPORT 2024 - 2025

South-East Asia Region

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SEARO Director Saima WazedSaima Wazed

Director of SEARO

 
The World Health Organization South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) made significant advancements in public health, with the collaboration, cooperation and coordination of our Member States, in 2024.

 

In consultation with Member States, our regional vision – the WHO South-East Asia Regional Roadmap for Results and Resilience 2024–2029 - was developed and launched. It has a focus on mental health, well-being and quality of life – particularly of women, girls, adolescents, and vulnerable populations. 

 

SEARO advanced digital health governance and strengthened regulatory systems across the region. At least 80% of our countries have drafted or completed their national digital health strategies, providing a structured roadmap for enhancing health information systems, interoperability, and digital health innovation.

 

In the regulatory governance of medicines and related products, SEARO developed a conceptual model for National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) in resource-limited settings. This offers risk-based recommendations to ensure access to quality medical products. We also manage the South-East Asia Regulatory Network (SEARN), a platform driven by Member States, with over 100 NRA experts facilitating regulatory convergence and information sharing. This collaborative approach has enabled better coordination among NRAs, WHO, and other stakeholders. 

 

Our region implemented an innovative regional public health intelligence framework that analyzed over 1m media articles for the rapid detection of health threats. This proactively led to the validation of 41 health events, and enhanced country collaboration through a multi-source surveillance strategy in 2024.

 

Other milestones were achieved in the prevention and control neglected tropical diseases, including Timor-Leste’s validation of lymphatic filariasis elimination, India’s trachoma elimination, and comprehensive disease program reviews in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

 

SEARO supported Thailand and Sri Lanka in sustaining the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis, and prepared Maldives for its 2025 hepatitis B EMTCT application.

 

Our strong advocacy saw the adoption of the Ministerial Declaration on Adolescent-Responsive Health Systems, articulating commitment of our nations to the needs of our 360 million adolescents. 

 

Our WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control implementation efforts have significantly advanced tobacco control measures and the management of non-communicable disease risk factors.

 

We also progressed in urban health, collaborating with local governments in eight countries to address determinants and improve outcomes.

 

I acknowledge, appreciate and applaud our Member States. It is their cooperation and partnership that has made this progress possible, and I look forward to all that we will continue to achieve together.


 

PROGRESS ON THE TRIPLE BILLION TARGETS

Regional Aggregation

These charts illustrate the contributions of various tracer indicators which are driving progress toward the Triple Billion targets for universal health coverage, health emergencies and healthier populations. Each stacked bar shows the relative contribution of these tracer indicators over time, highlighting both positive gains and areas where progress has reversed. The overlaid lines indicate the net impact of outcome indicators associated with each of the Triple Billion targets, offering a broader view of how health impact is evolving.

 

WHO CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS HEALTH OUTCOMES

Regional Aggregation of the Output Prioritization

Overview of the financial implementation of the prioritized outputs

Highlighted Results

  •   Universal health coverage 
  •  Health emergencies protection 
  •  Healthier populations 
  •  Effective and efficient WHO 
  • SE-1_A commitment towards cervical cancer elimination

    Cervical cancer is a critical public health challenge in the WHO South-East Asia Region, accounting for a significant portion of global cases and deaths. In alignment with Immunization Agenda 2030, the global cervical cancer elimination initiative set a goal to vaccinate 90% girls by age 15 by 2030. In response, the Region focused on expanding human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination efforts. Regional HPV vaccine coverage increased from 8% in 2023 to 48% in 2025 with nine of the 11 member countries successfully integrating the HPV vaccine into their national immunization programmes and switching to single-dose of HPV vaccine. In the past two years Bangladesh, Nepal and Timor Leste launched innovative strategies to facilitate access and engagement to increase vaccination rates. However, challenges remain such as disparities in vaccine acceptance, reaching out to schoolgirls, and logistical hurdles such as inadequate availability of the vaccine. The Region is committed to addressing these challenges, leveraging multisectoral collaboration and ensuring equitable access to prevent cervical cancer effectively. Once India introduces the HPV vaccine, the Region is expected to reach the regional target with technical support from WHO. Both the Region and Member States are expected to achieve the 90% target by 2030.

  • SE-1_Commitment to adopting adolescent-responsive health systems

    The South-East Asia Region accounts for 27% of the world’s total adolescent population – the highest for any Region. While adolescent deaths have significantly decreased over the past two decades, morbidity rates are high. Adolescents are often neglected in health policies, lack access to essential health services, face stigma and have limited privacy. While countries have introduced adolescent-friendly health services, the focus has been on health facilities neglecting to provide a comprehensive care package.  

     

    During the reporting year, the Regional Office conducted a national health systems assessment using an online tool, facilitated an orientation-cum-capacity building webinar, and convened a regional meeting on responsive health systems. This led to the Regional Committee adopting the historic “Ministerial Declaration on Adolescent-Responsive Health Systems”. National governments are committed to prioritizing adolescent health by tailoring policies, allocating resources and providing services that align with unique health needs and rights of adolescents and integrating them under health system strengthening to deliver comprehensive primary health care.  

     

    This transformative high-level initiative ensures that the 360 million adolescents in the Region will have to access high-quality, inclusive and respectful health services without financial barriers. This sets the way for achieving the vision and goals for universal health coverage.

  • SE-1_Delivering on the promise of an HIV-, syphilis- and hepatitis B-free new generation

    Three South-east Asian countries – Thailand (June 2016), Maldives (July 2019) and Sri Lanka (November 2019) – achieved WHO validation for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and syphilis, with WHO’s technical assistance. The WHO Regional Office helps implement the Global Validation Advisory Committee’s recommendation for Triple EMTCT (HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B), by providing technical assistance, conducting reviews, building capacity, updating guidelines and strengthening monitoring and surveillance. 

     

    A Regional Validation Committee (RVC) was established to assist countries in achieving EMTCT targets. In 2024, the RVC reviewed Sri Lanka and Thailand for maintenance of HIV and syphilis EMTCT, while assisting Thailand's new application for hepatitis B virus (HBV) EMTCT. Maldives is working on HBV EMTCT and potentially Triple EMTCT in 2025.

     

    The Regional Office extended technical support towards achieving Triple EMTCT by 2030, while recognizing the diversity of these three epidemics among pregnant women. It proposed subnational certification approaches, in large and decentralized countries. All three levels of the WHO ensure support for EMTCT in protracted emergency settings, such as Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (Grade 2) and Myanmar (Grade 3). WHO collaborates with health partners to ensure the provision of safe motherhood and EMTCT services to pregnant women and their children.

  • SE-1_Strengthening regulatory systems for safe and quality medical products

    Robust regulatory systems are essential to ensuring access to safe, effective and quality medical products, playing a critical role in achieving universal health care. However, while well-resourced National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) employ numerous experts across various specializations, many lack the resources to develop such extensive systems.

    Recognizing this, the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia undertook an in-depth analysis of regulatory landscapes in Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste, and after consultations with NRAs and partners, developed a conceptual model designed for NRAs operating with very limited resources. This document provides contextualized, risk-based recommendations to help countries establish functional regulatory systems. Several countries have already begun implementing these recommendations to enhance their regulatory capacity.

    The Regional Office also serves as the secretariat of the South-East Asia Regulatory Network, a Member-State-led platform that facilitates collaboration, regulatory convergence and reliance among NRAs. Since 2003, the Network has improved information-sharing, through a structured safety alert system, enabling swift regulatory action on safety and quality issues. Three alerts were issued during 2023–2024, and 14 generated under the 2024–2025 work plan. Through these efforts, the Regional Office strengthens regulations and collaboration, ensuring availability of safe medical products and contributing to health security.

  • SE-1_Towards multidisease elimination in South-East Asia

    WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, along with the WHO headquarters, country offices and partners, has committed to eliminating communicable diseases, such as neglected tropical diseases and malaria. In 2024, the Regional Office validated Timor Leste’s achievement of lymphatic filariasis elimination and India’s trachoma elimination as a public health problem. A WHO pre-certification mission to Timor-Leste provided technical assistance to prepare for WHO malaria-free certification, based on their completion of three consecutive years without indigenous malaria. 

     

    To enhance multidisease elimination, integrated programme reviews were conducted in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, targeting vector-borne diseases and skin-related tropical diseases, optimizing strategies and fostering coordination among health programmes. Sri Lanka focused on malaria, lymphatic filariasis, dengue and leishmaniasis, whereas Indonesia laid emphasis on combating skin-related neglected tropical diseases. The holistic approach of the reviews enabled a comprehensive understanding of various disease dynamics and encouraged collaboration among disease control units. They provided an opportunity for optimizing resources, fostering shared knowledge, developing unified surveillance systems, and improving health system preparedness for future outbreaks. The reviews ultimately highlighted existing gaps and areas for health system enhancements, paving the way for more effective efforts to accelerate and sustain disease elimination and improved health outcomes in the Region.

  • SE-2_Advancing public health intelligence through collaborative surveillance

    In 2024, over one million media articles were screened using Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS), to detect and verify health threats, substantiating 41 events. Communication of International Health Regulations (IHR) events with Member States improved. Routine assessments were enhanced with a new risk assessment algorithm, and situational awareness improved with 26 Epidemiological Bulletin editions, amassing over 15 000 downloads.

     

    A regional manual was developed and applied in Indonesia and Nepal, boosting cross-sectoral collaboration for dengue surveillance (Indonesia), and a multisectoral data-sharing framework for waterborne diseases (Nepal). A globally piloted novel risk assessment algorithm was introduced in four countries, enabling stakeholders to inform response actions. Field epidemiology capacities were bolstered through the Regional Roadmap 2025–2029, enhanced use of EIOS in six countries, and development of dengue forecasting models in Sri Lanka. 

     

    Member States enhanced laboratory quality through training in biorisk management, genomic sequencing, bioinformatics and participation in global external quality assessments. Workforce development improved with Global Laboratory Leadership Programme initiation in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste. Regional laboratory systems were enhanced through partnerships with key organizations. Collectively, progress made in public health intelligence and laboratory capacities, contribute to enhanced health security.

  • SE-3_Teaming up with strategic partners to create a healthier world.

    The first WHO Regional Healthy Cities Network for South-East Asia brought together 23 cities across eight countries for a holistic approach to create city-level health actions and improve urban governance to promote health and well-being. This approach benefited 19 million urban residents, and 10 of the 23 cities were awarded for showing strong commitments to advance healthy cities. The Regional Office in collaboration with the Regional Laboratory on Urban Governance for Health and Well-being, and WHO country offices (of Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand), trained around 250 participants from 19 cities to become collective urban leaders dedicated to advancing urban governance for health and well-being. 

     

    In collaboration with WHO and key United Nations agencies, several capacity-building initiatives were undertaken to support comprehensive school health programmes, promote safe learning environments, and prevent violence against children. Eight countries from the South-East Asia Region are participating in the global survey on violence against children supported by the Regional Office, and four countries (Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste) have pledged (at the 2024 First Global Ministerial Conference to End Violence Against Children) to end all forms of violence against children including corporal punishment in schools and families.

  • SE-3_Towards a tobacco free South-East Asia: Bending the curve

    The WHO South-East Asia Region has achieved a steep decrease in tobacco use, despite having highest tobacco use prevalence. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), ratified by all the countries in the Region except Indonesia, is instrumental in advancing tobacco control in the Region. In 2024, member countries strove to build on their progress, proactively addressing challenges, including novel and emerging nicotine/tobacco products, persistent use of smokeless tobacco and areca nut products, and significant tobacco industry interference.  

     

    The Region is on track to achieve the noncommunicable diseases Action Plan target of 2025. The Tobacco Unit continues to support countries for implementing strategies under WHO FCTC and MPOWER package to reduce the demand and supply of tobacco at the national level. 

     

    World No Tobacco Day 2024  with its theme video on protecting children from tobacco industry interference increased awareness raising. A Regional workshop in Bangkok addressed illicit tobacco trade and unrecorded alcohol. Bhutan received support for its multisectoral action plan, Maldives for its decadal action plan and Bangladesh for establishing its national quitline. Taxation support, e-cigarette bans, and preparations for the Global Adult Tobacco Survey and Global Youth Tobacco Survey emphasize the Region’s commitment to combating tobacco use.

  • SE-4_Driving change: 2024–2029 roadmap for building resilience and achieving results

    The WHO South-East Asia Regional Roadmap for Results and Resilience 2024–2029 (referred to as the “Roadmap”) was developed in consultation with the Region’s Member States to achieve the vision of a healthier Region, through holistic, sustainable, equitable and innovative country-led approaches, with WHO serving as a facilitator.

     

    Launched in 2024, the roadmap targets public health priorities by harnessing WHO's synergistic contributions to support governments and partners in addressing key public health priorities and achieving sustainable health impacts at subnational, national and regional levels. The key focus areas for the Roadmap are primary health care, universal health coverage, strengthening health workforce capacities, preventing and controlling communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance, enhancing International Health Regulations core capacity, ensuring a safe and healthy start to life, and addressing social determinants of health with an emphasis on noncommunicable diseases.

     

    The Roadmap’s initiatives foster collaboration, promote resilience, and drive results to enhance the health and well-being of people and communities across the Region over the next five years. The ultimate goal of the Roadmap is to create a healthier and more resilient South-East Asia Region through strategic and coordinated efforts. 

  • SE-4_Unlocking digital health and AI

    The WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia has significantly strengthened digital health governance by guiding Member States in creating national digital health blueprints. Through strategic guidance, technical assistance and capacity-building initiatives, five member states now have comprehensive digital health strategies, making it the first WHO Region where 80% of Member States have completed or drafted such strategies.

    A key achievement is the development of a unified adaptable blueprint methodology, scalable across diverse national contexts while aligning with global best practices. The Regional Office facilitated structured multistakeholder consultations in five member states, engaging national health, information technology, and finance ministries alongside external and international partners, fostering a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to digital health transformation.

    These efforts produced robust national digital health roadmaps aligned with regulatory frameworks and interoperability standards, strengthening health information systems and promoting cross-sectoral integration. The adoption of comprehensive electronic health records will enhance continuity of care, ensuring accessible and up-to-date patient information. Standardized, high-quality health data will drive evidence-based policy making and precision health interventions, addressing regional health challenges effectively. Enhancing accessibility, efficiency and equity will speed up progress toward universal health care. Advanced analytics enable real-time monitoring, with the Regional Office driving digital health for better outcomes.

Lessons Learned

Vertical and siloed approaches within health ministries hinder integrated disease elimination efforts, emphasizing the need for stronger cross-programmatic collaboration. Competing priorities and constrained budgets have further impeded progress in disease elimination, with logistical and human resource challenges affecting respective national programmes. Myanmar and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had setbacks that reversed years of progress in the control and elimination of certain communicable diseases. Key lessons learned include the need for persistent advocacy, partnerships and technical assistance to maintain momentum towards disease elimination, including efforts to address antimicrobial resistance and provide support in humanitarian settings.
The effectiveness of coordination across the three levels of WHO as a critical factor for success (such as the certification of disease elimination for certain diseases); the importance of persistent advocacy to maintain political commitment towards ending tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, neglected tropical diseases, and Triple EMTCT; the need for strengthening and leveraging partnerships, particularly for technical support; and the ongoing need for sustained technical assistance to Member States in response to the changing global health environment and emerging threats.
Countries have faced challenges in achieving long-term sustainability within siloed vertical disease initiatives, often relying on external rather than local capacities. A crucial lesson is the need to integrate disease prevention and control strategies within primary health care and other key health preparedness programmes, particularly as disease prevalence decreases and more nations meet elimination criteria. Encouraging nations to mobilize domestic resources will reduce dependence on external funding. Successful case studies from India, Indonesia and Thailand illustrate how integrating disease elimination interventions into health systems can provide a replicable model for other countries.
The digital health unit will focus on assisting Member States develop national interoperability standards-based open architecture ecosystems, augment ongoing digital health investments, disseminate evidence-based practices, prevent vendor in and avoid the scourge of pilotitis. Such an approach is likely to help Member States unlock the potential of digital health technology to address the populations’ most pressing health care challenges.
Every NRA can strengthen its regulatory system to improve access to quality medical products by adopting a risk-based approach, leveraging reliance mechanisms effectively and fostering collaboration with other Member States.
The Regional Office played a crucial role in advocating for adolescent health in South-East Asia, emphasizing the need for a health systems approach to address significant morbidity and barriers faced by its 360 million adolescent population. This culminated in the successful adoption of the Ministerial Declaration on Adolescent-Responsive Health Systems. WHO advanced regional progress toward universal health coverage and fostered political accountability for adolescent rights and health needs by making adolescent health an integral part of strengthening health systems as a whole.
Despite challenges such as subnational disparities and vaccine hesitancy, significant progress has been made in HPV vaccination coverage, increasing from 3% in 2019 to 16% in 2023. The adoption of a one-dose vaccination schedule has further simplified and improved delivery strategies. Continuous investment, robust advocacy and collaborative multisectoral efforts are essential to ensure that no one is left behind. The path forward involves leveraging community support and reinforcing health systems to sustain these gains, thereby working towards the goal of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health concern.
This is the first time that the Regional Office worked closely with local governments across eight countries, providing technical support to implement a holistic approach to address the root causes of urban health challenges through urban governance for health and well-being. These efforts positively impacted 19 million urban people in 23 cities and also fostered the creation of collective urban leaders. This achievement was made possible through rigorous work and collaboration between the Regional Office, the Regional Laboratory and advocacy efforts with Member states and partner agencies such as the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, the Indonesian National Network of Health Promotion, and academic institutes. In collaboration with several partners to promote healthier development for children, the Regional Office enhanced capacities to support comprehensive school health programmes, safe learning environments, and the prevention of violence against children, including ending corporal punishment particularly in four countries (Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste). The Regional Office also led a technical working group on school health and nutrition with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Population Fund, World Food Programme, and partner agencies.
The importance of keeping the momentum through sustained efforts at the national level. Secondly, intersectoral and multisectoral coordination and collaboration are vital for effective tobacco control. Addressing the challenge posed by the large-scale tobacco industry can be by implementation of best buys and evidence-based strategies, advocated under WHO FCTC. The One WHO approach, with excellent collaboration among all levels of WHO is a crucial key to success.
Strengthening systematic procedures and building trust among stakeholders (including the three levels of WHO, and the government counterparts) have been critical in strengthening public health intelligence. In strengthening multisource collaborative surveillance (MSCS), the proposed approach of “thinking backward” was effective. It started from decision scenarios and information being translated into surveillance objectives and surveillance approaches, and was effective in facilitating a collaborative approach for surveillance. The MSCS stakeholder workshop further strengthened this collaboration by bringing together surveillance stakeholders to interact and discuss the common goals and propose priority actions to address the gaps in MSCS.
The regional Roadmap will work as a catalyser and enhancer for the implementation of WHO programmes in the Region. Further efforts are needed to advocate its use among Member States and stakeholders to achieve the Region's vision.