ThaiHealth and WHO South East Asia Region join forces to promote healthy lifestyles in South and East Asian urban communities

Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) and World Health Organization South-East Asia Region (WHO-SEARO) have partnered up to help build healthy urban communities in a recent announcement at the regional meeting among regional and international health promotion organizations on urban governance and building health security, pushing for promotion at home in Thailand, and South-East Asia Region .

Sep 27, 2022 — ThaiHealth, WHO-SEARO, Regional Laboratory on Urban Health Governance for Health and Wellbeing (UGHW), and Swiss Development Cooperation, co-organized the “Regional Meeting with Multisectoral Partners on Urban Governance for Health and Wellbeing in South-East Asia Region” at Pullman King Power hotel. The meeting, which was kicked off today and will continue until September 29, serves as a forum where members of various sectors come to discuss matters of urban governance and health promotion in South – East Asia Region. ThaiHealth Asisstant  CEO, Dr Pairoj Saonuam, said that the meeting’s goal is to give information about progress in the implementation of the Healthy City programme in South-East Asia region. The meeting will also introduce various tools to support the development of urban health.

Dr Pairoj also added that the meeting also enhanced working partnerships between the health sector and the urban development sector through the Healthy City Network with various sectors. The activities included a knowledge exchange session, showcase of good practices in health promotion by ThaiHealth, WHO-SEARO, and other health promotion organizations. ThaiHealth has long been cooperating with WHO-SEARO for more than a decade. Apart from several memorandam of understanding, ThaiHealth is also getting the helping hands from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Engineering in developing the “Healthy Space Next Door” manual based on the cost of developing healthy areas in Thailand’s context. The manual will be useful for the designing of urban wellness areas for cities in South-East Asia as well.

Director of ThaiHealth’s Partnership and International Relations Section, Dr Nuttapun Supaka , also added that the meeting was the first activity under the  latest MOU between ThaiHealth and WHO-SEARO for 2022-2025, which aims to promote urban health, and to develop the potential of health promotion personnel in Thailand, and South-East Asia Region, by working with all sectors.

ThaiHealth also organized an exhibition to disseminate its best practices, guidelines, and useful tools for various health promotion aspects, such as road safety, healthy university, healthy community, , road safety, healthy space, and physical activity. In addition, ThaiHealth executives and ThaiHealth’s strategic partners also attended the main forum to exchange and share knowledge and experiences in the field of health promotion.

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