Resident Coordinator's Remarks at the BCG Model in the Health and Wellbeing Sector Webinar

Distinguished participants, colleagues and friends.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my views on health and wellbeing through a Bio-Circular-Green perspective.

The Government’s commitment to scaling up this ambitious development dialogue in various domains is very much aligned with the SDGs.

In fact, the goals of the BCG underpin the UN’s five-year Cooperation Framework, which sets  out the priorities of UN agencies, including the WHO, in Thailand.

The UN brings integrated technical expertise, science-based evidence, and digital solutions to bear on its policy recommendations and in-country projects. This is how we add value in Thailand.

Let me highlight three areas where the UN in partnership with the Government is lending support to green-bio-circularity in country.

First, the UN is partnering with the Ministry of Public Health on telemedicine initiatives in this era of “the new normal.”

One project was piloted at the height of the pandemic in Pattani, where patients with lower risks of serious disease could access medical consultation using telecommunication tools. Hospitals then delivered medicines to them with through the village health volunteers.

This initiative is being scaled up to other provinces. Telemedicine services like these, ease the burden on medical facilities, help maintain social distancing, and are more environmentally sustainable.

In another similar initiative, the WHO is working with Chiang Mai University to improve hypertension management within primary healthcare facilities in Lampang.

Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are collaborating with village health volunteers to provide basic treatment and lifestyle counselling remotely, to people with high blood pressure. This makes a big difference in villages where regular access is lacking and is easily scalable across provinces.

As you are aware, hypertension is a growing problem in Thailand with at least 13 million adults suffering from it. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the country.

They also exact an enormous economic price, costing 1.6 trillion baht annually, or equivalent to nearly a tenth of the GDP. At the same time, the rising costs of NCD-related treatments, also threaten the future of Thailand’s Universal Health Coverage System as they already consume half of its budget.

Second, we’re using science-based evidence to better understand the sources of air pollution, which can cause or worsen all manner of diseases.

The UN leverages its regional assets through ESCAP, to access satellite imagery and undertake chemical fingerprinting of smoke. This enables us to understand in real-time, the exact sources of air pollution, its levels of toxicity and health impacts.

We learned that most harmful air pollution in Thai cities is caused by smoke from seasonal biomass burning and industrial emissions.

Analysis suggests that air pollution impacts women more than men with a statistically higher rate of illness, death and pregnancy-related complications.

This is a pressing health concern, and the UN is taking this partnership to support ten provinces to develop strategies to reduce airborne pollutants.

Finally, we are prioritising waste management assessments to support the recycling, reuse, and safe disposal of hazardous waste at the municipal level.

Tackling this problem is part of a broader waste management challenge. UNEP, UN-HABITAT and UNIDO are piloting these assessments across 20 municipal landfills and dumpsites to devise bio-circular solutions.

Among the solutions will be those targeted at hazardous medical and chemical waste, which can negatively impact people’s wellbeing and their immediate environment.

Going forward, the UN will be deploying other evidence-based strategies and digital solutions to assist Thailand in its bio-circular-green transformation.

I am very much looking forward to the Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister’s keynote address and to the panel discussion by the other distinguished experts here today on the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Thank you.