The United States, South Korea and Japan have launched on Friday a PHP1.6 billion partnership to help the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) improve access to quality healthcare in the next six years.

This will be a collaboration among the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which will share expertise and resources to improve health information systems and increase public health financing.

The pool of funding will also help improve healthcare facilities and expand quality services in the region.

The three agencies signed the memorandum of cooperation in a ceremony in Pasay City on Friday, establishing the framework for their partnership that will run until 2030.

“We envision a future where mothers and their children are in the care of highly capable professionals, where TB patients receive treatment, where young adults receive culturally sensitive reproductive health services and where families are protected from infectious diseases and pandemic threats,” US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said.

“This new partnership with Korea and Japan, the first in the Asia-Pacific region, will build on our country’s deep historic ties to address our world’s complex challenges in an innovative and collaborative way and in a strategic sense,” she added.

Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Endo Kazuya hoped the initiative would create a “more resilient and efficient regional health care system” that vulnerable groups could also access.

Of the three agencies, JICA will help strengthen maternal and newborn health services; improve nutrition for the region; and promote PhilHealth enrollment facility-based deliveries.

“Our efforts towards a more inclusive and responsive health system reflects Japan’s long-standing commitment to human security and peace-making efforts within the BARMM,” Endo said.

KOICA Vice President Kim Dong Ho said Korea would focus on strengthening the region’s health security and digital health capabilities, among others.

“Korea’s experience rising from the ashes of war to prosperity drives our commitment to supporting peace and development, reflected in our 30 percent increase in official development assistance and a 48 percent boost in KOICA’s budget for 2024,” he said.

KOICA will also enhance health financing through PhilHealth, upgrade facilities and equipment and boost emergency preparedness with the Department of Health-certified Field Epidemiology Training program.

The USAID, meanwhile, will strengthen health systems, enhance the delivery of family planning, adolescent reproductive health, and tuberculosis programs and improve preparedness and response to emerging health threats.

“This collaboration reinforces the shared journey of DOH, BARMM-MOH, USAID, JICA, and KOICA towards our vision of Universal Health Care and the sustainable development goals for health, including quality service delivery, healthcare financing, health governance, and health regulations,” DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said.

In a separate interview, Herbosa said the aid is a much needed boost for the BARMM, noting the poor health outcomes in the region over years of conflict.

“It’s been a conflict area for many years and luckily tapos na ang transition period (the transition period is over), we’re now transitioning to regular governance, leadership, and I do hope that the pillars of human development in society— health care, education, and jobs— will be answered by all these grants,” he said.

BARMM Health Minister Kadil Sinolinding Jr. said the BARMM would work with JICA, KOICA and the USAID and “ensure that every peso, dollar, won, and yen invested shall translate to tangible improvements in people’s health and quality of life”.

The partnership also covers training and support to local governments and communities to help expand health outreach to vulnerable populations, including the indigenous groups.

The quadrilateral collaboration among JICA, KOICA and the USAID marks the first initiative on health in Asia among the development agencies of the three states. (PNA)