The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Programme represents a partnership between 11 countries in the Central Asian region, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the People’s Republic of China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The CAREC Healthcare Strategy 2030 describes the programme’s direction on health, encompassing risk management activities relevant to emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, other communicable diseases, and non-communicable diseases. The CAREC Health Strategy covers four main pillars, with pillar 3 outlining the approach to secure access to essential supplies and surge capacity.

The implementation of the CAREC Health Strategy 2030 is supported by the Regional Investment Framework (RIF) 2022-2027, a country-owned document with oversight for implementation by the CAREC Working Group on Health.

Funded by the Asian Development Bank, Crown Agents will support technical assistance activities related to pillar 3 of the CAREC Health Strategy 2030 with the specific objectives to:

• develop a comprehensive regional risk management plan for health supply chains;
• recommend, design, and pilot a fit-for-purpose mechanism/platform that will facilitate regional sharing of market information on selected medical products within the region
• undertake a situational analysis and feasibility study for cross-border collaborative procurement arrangements in the CAREC region;
• work closely with and through the CAREC Health Procurement and Supply Chain Management SubWorking Group (PSCM-SWGH).

To achieve these objectives, Crown Agents has carried out an initial review, noting variations in health service design across countries, resulting from differences in available funding, health service requirements, social expectations from healthcare, political commitments, differences in beliefs and many more.

Crown Agents will work to harmonize the needs and interests of the member countries to engineer regional risk management tools, procurement technology platforms and operating models that will ensure a patient-centric health system, especially prioritising availability of critical items.