Ministry of Health and Welfare

Global Health Security Agenda

2015 High-Level Meeting in Seoul, Republic of Korea

Detailed Schedule Announced

- The Government of Republic of Korea laid out 3-day meeting for health security

as a ‘common ground for opportunity’ with

governmental and non-governmental stakeholders together in Seoul, Sep 7 to 9 -

- One week left for Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) High-Level Meeting in Seoul, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea, along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense has announced the detailed schedule of this meeting.

- On the first day September 7 (Mon), side events will be held preceding the official meetings: The GHSA Forum will take place to enhance partnership with non-governmental stakeholders with the world's leading experts in health security. In addition, participants from major nations and international organizations will be given an opportunity to watch the "Able Response (AR) Exercise", an annual bio-defense exercise jointly carried out by the Republic of Korea and the U.S.governments

1. At the GHSA Forum which will be held under the theme "Health Security, Partnership with Non-Governmental Stakeholders", open to the public, presents how closely health and security field are linked to be discussed based with the experiences of recent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, MERS and human infection of avian influenza. An unprecedented discussion for health security in Korea, among the panel of the public, private and academic sectors, is expected to highlight the cooperation strategies and positioning of the non-governmental stakeholders – NGOs, foundations, academia and the ‘leaders of next generation of GHSA’ – with the public health authorities for public health crisis preparedness and response.

* To participate in the forum, see http://www.ghsa2015seoul.kr/forum.php

2. The AR exercise*, jointly carried out by the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Health and Welfare/Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ROK), in partnering with the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S., is an whole-of-government efforts to detect early and respond rapidly to infectious disease threats, whether naturally occurring or deliberately released. The observation trip allows high-level officials of several governments which are interested in Multi-sectoral Cooperation and international organizations, to stress the importance of developing an interconnected health security cooperation that can respond effectively to emerging global infectious disease threats.

* Based on the 5 years of history from 2011, this year’s main pathogen for exercise will be the smallpox, released by anonymous person, intentionally.

3. The ‘APEC-GHSA Policy Forum on Infection Control Infrastructure’ will also take place as a parallel event, to come up with great ideas for a rapid, effective response to the increasing threats of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The professional discussions at this forum will include cooperative strategy to build an effective network within the Asia-Pacific region and to support experts' activities to reflect them in policies.

- On Tuesday September 8, the second day, working-level official meetings will be convened. In the morning, the GHSA Steering Group Meeting is scheduled to be held to discuss details of GHSA operations. The Steering Group includes 10 countries* as an intergovernmental panel organized to effectively address the subject of GHSA operations. Usually, the Steering Group Meeting is held three or four times a year, in accordance with other major international organizations’ meetings such as WHO and OIE meetings. This time meeting will focus on reviewing the evaluation and monitoring tool and process of GHSA Action Packages, and discussing major decisions on administrative issues including new participating countries and future GHSA plan.

* the U.S., Canada, Chile, Finland, India, Indonesia, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Kenya and Saudi Arabia are member of the Steering Group

In the afternoon, Action Package Meetings will be held for discussions among working-level officials from each GHSA participating country about 11-sectoral, specific cooperative strategies that can prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats. The Action Packages include the 11 action items set up by the GHSA for effective prevention, detection and response (See annex). At the Seoul Meeting, the participating countries will breakout to 11 small groups of Action Packages, and they will review their efforts what have done for a year and what should be done for next year to implement their commitment of Action Packages. This year's Action Package Meetings will be aimed at sharing relevant information and building a worldwide network in coordination with working-level officials with regard to capacity-building efforts. The Republic of Korea, as a leading country for "Multi-sectoral Rapid Response," one of the 11 Action Packages, will share its experience and try to encourage the activities of participating countries, including establishing an annual plan and the assessment system for their own.

- On Wednesday September 9, the third day, the Ministerial Meeting, the highlight of the GHSA, will be held on the subject "Health Security and Multi-sectoral Cooperation." At this meeting, the importance of multi-sectoral cooperation focusing on health security on a global basis will be emphasized by global leaders, including Margaret Chan (Director General, WHO), Brian Evans (Assistant Director General, World Organization for Animal Health) and Tim Evans (Senior Director for the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice, World Bank Group). The Republic of Korea will share its experiences of the Able Response Exercise (Baek Seung-joo, Vice Minister, Ministry of National Defense, ROK & Amy Pope, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor(DHSA), National Security Council, US) and the response to the recent MERS-CoV outbreak (Yang Byung Kuk) Director, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ROK) with other partnering countries.

- The results of discussions at the GHSA will be announced in the form of "Seoul Declaration" which contains the spirit and vision of GHSA in terms of national policy’s top priority along with international cooperation, and proposes a strong framework of collaboration, for ensuring people infectious disease threats as a whole-of-society problem in every field of daily life including politics, economy and culture – no longer as an issue only confined to health itself. In addition, countries will be encouraged to join the global efforts to improve national prevention and control system and develop an advanced, interconnected health security system.

- An official of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea, said that this GHSA High-Level Meeting in Seoul will be an outstanding opportunity to build an interconnected, effective network for the sharing of information about infectious disease threats in collaboration with the participating countries; enhance each country’s response capacity; and support developing countries to implement preparedness and response system for their own, based on the ROK’s recent experience of MERS-CoV outbreak underscores the importance of capacities to rapidly, exactly share outbreak information, effectively carry out epidemiological investigation and establish a strong crisis response system.