SingHealth partners with ARMAC to provide psychosocial trainings in mine/ERW-affected ASEAN member states

The ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center (ARMAC) and Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 9 December 2021 to work together on the project, ‘Enhance Victim Assistance Programme in the ASEAN Member States’. The MoU will allow SingHealth to conduct needs assessment on psychosocial supports and provide psychosocial trainings to landmine and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) victims in affected ASEAN Member States such as Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. ARMAC Executive Director Mr. Prum Suonpraseth and SingHealth Group Director of the International Collaboration Office Professor Tan Hiang Khoon signed the MoU. The ceremony was presided over by H.E. Mr. Pengiran Kasmirhan Pengiran Tahir, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brunei Darussalam to the Kingdom of Cambodia, and Chair of ARMAC Steering Committee

Phnom Penh: 12 November 2021, His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Khaled Khiari, the UN Assistant Secretary-General of Middle East Asia and the Pacific, the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations visited the ARMAC Headquarters, along with the UN-related delegations. ARMAC Acting Executive Director (ED), Ms. Chanthana Sengthong provided an overview of ARMAC’s ongoing and pipeline projects and their challenges. The potential partnership between ARMAC and the UN agencies was suggested by both parties, to enhance regional cooperation and to achieve sustainable institutionalization. H.E. Mr. Khaled Khiari expressed his appreciation for the visit to ARMAC and showed his interest to understand further landmine/ERW issues in the ASEAN region and efforts to address them. He accepted the proposal to enhance the center’s capacity/expertise and delivered positive messages supporting ARMAC to take a more prominent role in humanitarian mine action work in the region.

Phnom Penh: 27 October 2021 – ARMAC Executive Director (ED) and Management staff met with JICA Deputy Chief Representative Mr. Shinji Yahagawa,  and JICA Technical Advisor to CMA Mr. Hayashi Akihita to explore future opportunities for collaboration.

During the meeting, ARMAC ED gave an overview of the organization‘s ongoing and pipeline projects. He also provided examples on which areas can ARMAC and JICA possibly engage with to promote regional cooperation, and partnership.

JICA shared that their experience on South-South Cooperation using Cambodia and Lao PDR exemplified successful partnerships between Japan and ASEAN countries.  As a center of excellence under the ASEAN Security Cooperation, both ARMAC and JICA agreed that that ARMAC’s role is to broker between stakeholders/partners in the region to widen the scope of South-South cooperation in the mine action sector.

A video presentation showing ARMAC’s engagements in the last 4 years was also shown.