The Project for Strengthening the ASEAN Regional Capacity on Disaster Health Management (ARCH Project) won the award for “Humanitarian Award for Excellence in Disaster Management” in WADEM 2025

Event：WADEM 2025 (The 23rd World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine)
Date：May 2 - 6, 2025
Venue：Keio Plaza Hotel, Japan

Participants included practitioners, researchers, educators, and others involved in disaster emergency medicine both domestically and internationally.
Many representatives from international organizations, such as the WHO (World Health Organization), the United Nations and other international agencies involved in disaster emergency medicine, also attended.

WADEM 2025 (The 23rd World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine), was held with the aim of strengthening health and medical systems during disasters by bringing together the expertise of academic professionals and healthcare workers in disaster medicine, emergency medicine, crisis management, and related fields from around the world. At this conference, the Project for Strengthening the ASEAN Regional Capacity on Disaster Health Management (ARCH Project) received the "Humanitarian Award for Excellence in Disaster Management."

This award is presented to organizations or projects that have made outstanding contributions in the field of disaster relief. In the past, renowned organizations such as Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional agency of the WHO, and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have also received this honor. The award is given at the WADEM conference, which is held biennially, and this time, the ARCH project was selected as the recipient.

At the award ceremony, Dr. Kriangsak Pintatham from the Thai Ministry of Public Health, representing the Secretariat of the Regional Coordination Committee on Disaster Health Management (RCCDHM), Dr. Bella Donna from the ASEAN Institute for Disaster Health Management (AIDHM) and Mr. Shuichi Ikeda, ARCH Project Chief Advisor, attended on behalf of the ARCH project.

Under the vision of "One ASEAN, One Response" promoted by the ASEAN, this project has been implemented for approximately ten years (Phase 1, Extension Phase, and Phase 2). It focuses on enhancing collaboration within the ASEAN region and strengthening disaster response capabilities in the field of disaster health management.

Through the exchange of disaster medical personnel and the knowledge co-creation between Japan and ASEAN, various activities over the past decade have significantly strengthened collaboration on disaster health medicine within the ASEAN region and enhanced each country's disaster response capabilities. These activities include the establishment and enhancement of Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) in each country, the development of tools such as standard operating procedures for EMT deployment during large-scale disasters within the ASEAN region, the development and implementation of training courses, regional collaboration exercises within the ASEAN region, the establishment of ASEAN Academic Network and ASEAN Institutes for Disaster Health Management, the launch of an ASEAN academic journal, and the organization of ASEAN academic conferences. These achievements have been highly appreciated, resulting in this award.

In response to the earthquake in Myanmar at the end of March 2025, emergency medical teams from the Ministries of Health of Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand were dispatched from ASEAN. These teams, having been strengthened through ARCH Project, effectively carried out medical operations on the sites by leveraging the networks and the lessons learned in the past collaboration drills and project activities.

Major disasters often strike when least expected, and the next significant disaster may occur in a different location than before. On a global scale, large-scale disasters happen somewhere every year. Therefore, the experience gained from responding to major disasters and the knowledge for disaster preparedness must be widely shared, transcending time, regions, and countries. It is essential to engage in mutual learning and extract useful knowledge. Our aim has been to create knowledge that is not solely based on the experiences of a limited group of people, nor just on Japan's experiences, but by sharing the experiences of ASEAN countries and integrating insights from around the world, making it accessible globally.

In addition, instead of traditional technical cooperation style, the project has prioritized mutual learning and knowledge co-creation as key strategies and been implemented with the intention of fostering strong ownership among disaster medical professionals in ASEAN countries and Japan rather than focusing solely on technical aspects. This approach aims to achieve multifaceted outcomes, including policy development, inter-organizational collaboration, institutional improvements, and the promotion of academic research across the ASEAN region and within each member country. Therefore, it is precisely because of this foundational approach that the project has been recognized by disaster medical professionals not only in ASEAN and Japan but also globally, leading to the receipt of this award.

Through this ARCH project, disaster medical professionals from Japan and ASEAN have developed mutual understanding and trust, while enhancing their knowledge and response capabilities in disaster health medicine. In the near future, it is increasingly expected that appropriate medical support activities will be carried out at disaster sites within the ASEAN region, in Japan, or elsewhere. Also, I hope that disaster medical professionals from Japan and the ASEAN region will collaborate at the same disaster sites, conducting more effective activities together.