Report of the Regional Meeting on Drowning Prevention

Overview

A two-day “South-East Asia Regional Meeting on Drowning Prevention” was co-hosted by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Offices for South-East Asia and Western Pacific, the Ministry of Public Health of the Royal Thai Government, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (RNLI-UK).

This meeting reviewed the development of the first Regional Report on Drowning Prevention 2020, through a collaboration between WHO and RNLI. This report will be instrumental in strengthening strategic, evidence-based and coordinated action for the prevention of drowning. Its broad scope will cover several related aspects of drowning, including prevalence of risk factors, leadership and intersectoral coordination, coverage and enforcement of regulations, and implementation of interventions.

The overall objective of the meeting was “to strengthen national capacities on drowning prevention of Member States of the WHO South-East Asia (SEA) Region.” The specific objectives of the meeting were to:

(1) raise political awareness and commitment on drowning prevention,

(2) review regulations, strategy/policy and programmes related to drowning prevention,

(3) identify national roadmap and stakeholders to strengthen drowning prevention programmes, and,

(4) identify potential contribution of WHO and other development partners, in particular the Royal National Lifeboat Institution–UL, to support Member States of the SEA Region.

The meeting was attended by 80 participants. They included 24 nominated delegates from 10 Member States of the SEA Region, 13 nominated delegates from five Member States of the Western Pacific Region, three experts and invitees, and 20 observers. Country delegations included senior officials/policymakers in functions related to the administration and management of national drowning prevention programmes and managers/directors of the national authorities for injury prevention as well as national data coordinators (NDCs) for the WHO-RNLI project.

Apart from the Agenda items for discussion, there were also Side-events, including: (i) a demonstration of good practices on drowning prevention in Thailand, (ii) an exhibition on drowning prevention from participating countries, and iii) a visit to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.

In addition to the main meeting, National Data Coordinators, WHO and RNLI discussed the implementation of the Regional Situation Report project on 29 July. The discussion covered the progress of implementation and plans for next steps, including the activities at the national level that are scheduled to be held after the launch of the report.