Regional Institutional Capacity and Past Collaboration

Efforts have already been targeted toward a number of the above strategies. For example, WHO is leading efforts in tobacco, surveillance, health policy development, creating an evidence base for intervention, and NCD training. Much progress has been made. The goal of this chapter has been to highlight the common issues where justification for a regional strategy is strong and build on what has been done.

A critical element for a regional policy or activity to get off the ground, as noted in Guiding Principles For Regional Collaboration, is having institutions that can lead and manage
supranational coordination. Some South Asian institutions that could play this role are shown in Table 7.2. The organization and structure of regional programs can take several forms, which the countries need to decide on, keeping in mind the roles and responsibilities of the regional coordinating institution.

In the most successful regional programs, the coordinating institution has the financial and political capacity to facilitate participation of all members, to monitor progress toward goals, and to manage conflicts. Using an evidence-based approach, initial regional programs should start with a stakeholder analysis, in order to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different organizational options and to formulate the first topics to address.