Every year, hundreds of human lives are lost, people injured, property damaged and livelihoods disrupted due to hazards such as floods, landslides, cyclones, earthquakes and droughts which regularly occur in countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region (SEAR). Moreover, country health systems in the Region face challenging financial circumstances even during regular times to run basic operations. Therefore, the ability to mobilize resources swiftly in the aftermath of disasters and crises is critical in minimizing deaths and suffering. Nevertheless, much needed assistance often reaches ground zero of the disaster or emergency when the opportunity to save lives and reduce suffering has almost passed.

The Member States of SEA Region have come up with an innovative strategy to bridge the gap between emergency needs and the arrival of formal disaster relief funding within health systems, by launching the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund (SEARHEF).

SEARHEF was established during the Sixtieth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, held in Thimphu, Bhutan in 2007. SEARHEF is expected to meet the immediate financial needs and fills critical gaps in an emergency. While complementing larger relief, long-term recovery, reconstruction, or rehabilitation work, SEARHEF has been a pioneer in the health emergency response in the Region.

For emergency response, WHO contributes US$ one million per biennium to the SEARHEF. In addition, all 11 Member States in the Region have also agreed to contribute to further bolster the SEARHEF corpus.

Member States of the Region can obtain SEARHEF funds within 24 hours under the following conditions:  

• • A declaration of a state of emergency,
• • An official request for external assistance by the national government,
• • Appointment of a humanitarian coordinator for that emergency by the UN Secretary-General.

SEARHEF disburses a maximum of US$ 350 000 for a given emergency, in two tranches of US$ 175 000. The receiving country needs to utilize the funds within the first three months of the response.

The requesting Member State is empowered to identify the best ways and means of spending the SEARHEF funding to suit the local needs of the emergency. SEARHEF has two streams of assistance:  

Response Stream

Member States could use the response stream to support emergency health relief activities such as:  

• I. Conducting rapid assessments
• II. Providing essential healthcare
• III. Supplying essential medicines
• IV. Augmenting emergency health staff
• V. Enhancing health staff mobility and safety
• VI. Addressing critical health facility repairs
• VII. Ensuring the access to safe water
• VIII. Preventing vector-borne diseases and other health hazards
• IX. Strengthening disease surveillance
• X. Boosting health education campaigns
• XI. Promoting the mental health of survivors

Preparedness Stream

Member states could use the preparedness stream to fund activities intended to enhance the resilience of health systems, such as:  

• I. Developing plans, guidelines, and standard operating procedures,
• II. Capacity building based on developed plans, guidelines, and standard operating procedures,
• III. Testing of plans.

SEARHEF has some unique features which make it ideal for serving its purpose. 

• • Speed of disbursement

SEARHEF disburses its funding within 24 hours of a request. 

• • A simple request, processing, approval, and reporting procedure

SEARHEF uses simple procedures at all stages of the emergency funding, considering the emergency nature of its disbursement while adhering to the usual accountability mechanisms. 

• • Flexibility to suit the local emergency specific needs

The requesting member state could design effective and innovative emergency interventions to suit the local needs. 

• • Having a response and preparedness streams

With the recently included preparedness stream, SEARHEF could contribute to the mitigation of disaster risks in addition to the emergency response.