With a historical legacy stretching over a century, the Rockefeller Foundation and its partners have worked diligently to address health challenges in Thailand by encouraging innovative partnerships to promote the well-being of Thai communities.
This has been their mandate across the board for a nation that continues to face a barrage of challenges in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and a struggling economy.
One of their significant contributions that have had a far-reaching impact on Thai society in recent times includes its support for the Mekong Basin Diseases Surveillance Foundation. It helped create a mobile application called Event-Based Disease Surveillance, which provides health workers with real-time reports and useful analytics so that they can detect, monitor, and respond to disease outbreaks in Thailand and neighbouring countries.
As one of the nation's longest-serving foundations, it also offered a grant to Mahidol University last year to strengthen the scientific workforce towards developing actionable data that will allow health officials to better control the pandemic.
One of Rockefeller's major focuses in Asia is equitable access to health, which is headed by the Foundation's regional office in Bangkok.
"The Foundation is committed to strengthening the scientific workforce towards more timely, representative and reliable genomic surveillance in Southeast Asia to provide actionable data that will allow health officials to control Covid-19," said the Rockefeller Foundation's managing director for Asia Region Deepali Khanna.
As for the Foundation's response to the pandemic in Thailand, she said: "We haven't done immediate response work because based on what we were hearing we felt that the [Thai] government and all the local stakeholders were well prepared to deal with the challenge on hand.
"[Earlier on] we were in touch with various partners to gauge how the situation was transpiring because we want to work in a space where we can add value. [After deciphering the situation] we said that we need to be looking at genome sequencing and how to help Thailand better prepare for a future pandemic. The whole-genome sequencing pace is going to be so important for future pandemics and preparedness is where we have put our resources."
Khanna also said they were looking at the vaccination strategy at a global level and deciding on what should be important elements, such as the demand and supply, and how to set a robust system in place.
The Foundation has attempted to better understand how Thailand has managed its system of tracking vaccine deliveries and how vaccinations are happening because at Rockefeller they make a distinction between vaccine and vaccination.
She said it is one thing to have vaccines, but it's another thing to get the vaccination.
"You know we've been very good with children's vaccinations in the past, but when it comes to adult vaccinations, there's been a challenge. How do we make sure that we have the kind of infrastructure for adult vaccinations to be happening in a systematic and regular way so that you know we're providing equitable access to vaccinations that are needed?"
Khanna said when it comes to the health infrastructure of a country, it is the frontline workers that are going to be carrying out adult vaccinations.
The question also arises as to how the media plays its role in addressing public vaccine hesitancy issues and concerns.
While the Foundation has attempted to better understand what they can be doing in the whole vaccination process and strategy that Thailand has implemented, "they are not close to saying, well you know, this is what we will be doing".
"I think for us the starting point is also understanding where each country is [when it comes to Covid-19]. What are their hopes and aspirations? What is the contextual reality? This is better than a US foundation dictating our terms on them."
Rockefeller's health initiatives in Thailand have also come in the form of support for the annual Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) which has become a global event since 2007.
The PMAC 2022, which was held late last month, has evolved significantly in terms of networking and partnership.
Churnrurtai Kanchanachitra, PMAC secretariat and vice-president for Collaboration and Networking at Mahidol University said PMAC and the Rockefeller Foundation's collective legacy has grown through time.
She said the general objective of the annual Prince Mahidol Award Conference is to bring together leading public health leaders and stakeholders from around the world to discuss high-priority global health issues, summarise findings, and propose concrete solutions and recommendations.
The Rockefeller Foundation has been a strong co-host of the PMAC since 2009, providing both technological and financial support.
"This year, the conference's sub-theme also had climate issues given the converging crises of climate, health, and environment," she said. "The PMA Foundation is particularly interested in global megatrends including climate change and environmental degradation affecting the livelihood and health of people around the world. PMAC, as one of the main activities of the PMA Foundation, is concerned about these megatrends and their impact on the well-being of people.
"Recently, the PMAC 2022 via the sub-theme 'Scaling Up Efforts To Address Climate Crisis And Building Forward Greener', addressed converging global crises and how to take bold actions for humanity and the planet -- emphasising that human health is dependent on the planet's health.
"Moving forward to PMAC 2023, 'The Nexus Of Climate Change, Environment, Biodiversity And Health' will be looking through a health lens towards climate change impacts using a solutions-based approach in narration. PMAC 2023 will be also articulating youth voices both in the conference planning process and activities as well as gathering new perspectives from various related stakeholder groups."
Reflecting on Rockefeller Foundation's century-old presence in Thailand and its valuable partnership with Mahidol University, Churnrurtai said that from the very beginning it has carried its mandate to support the well-being of Thai communities through "a systematic approach strategically concentrating on creating health systems and access to higher education". This has led to sustainable development that reflects the local challenges such as poverty, population growth, ageing, climate change, income inequalities, food crises, etc.
"At the organisational level, the Rockefeller Foundation [continues to] provide grants that aim to boost the technical competence of the recipients. For Mahidol University, the Foundation's grants have been comprehensively poured through the knowledge-based production stream [research and human resource development and upskilling], all of which contribute to the foundation of innovative learning and educational development for the next generation.
"For the PMAC, Rockefeller Foundation's support contributes to broadening its extensive networking and co-operation in global health agendas and policy development. This also results in the clusters of collaborative activities across regions and areas of expertise, following the theme and sub-themes of the PMAC each year. The outputs of the PMAC would help enrich and can be applied to health policy and system design and development of various countries around the world."
