i. Researchers/policy makers/government officials – 28 participants, three drawn from each ASEAN Member State and China who meet the following criteria:
• Responsible for managing health information in one of the following fields: BOD, Health/Vital Statistics, Summary Measure of Population Health (SMPH), NCDs monitoring and evaluation.
• Background and work experience at the mid-level or higher in one of the following fields: Medical/Health professional, Statistics/Biostatistics, Public Health research.
• Researcher who is interested in the burden of diseases estimation/population health measures.
• University/faculty member/member from NGOs who want to do collaboration in their research related with the burden of disease.
• Currently working in a government organization or academic institutions.
ii. Experts/Specialists: The international and national academic/research experts/specialists in the field of population health measure/diseases burden from China and AMS to share the information and challenges regarding the BOD, and to encourage the use of BOD data for health policy priority setting.
iii. ASEAN Secretariat.

Development of Asia’s social and economic over recent decades result in epidemiological transition such as: increasing longevity, urbanization, poor lifestyles through facilitating increased consumption of tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods those are significantly impact on non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
In Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, health policy makers need the qualified evidence-based information to decide better decision on priority setting for health planning, resource allocation to achieve Universal Health Coverage. Burden of disease (BOD) represents a summary measure of population health which combines information on fatal and non-fatal health related loss. Moreover, it is an essential tool for quantifying an impact of various health risk factors on population health and for prioritizing major health outcomes in specific age group. Understanding the true burden of individual nations is essential to track health progress, access the impact of public health interventions, and inform evidence-based policy decisions. Furthermore, the results of BOD studies can be used as an indicator of overall health status at the population level and compare efficiency of health care system across AMS and network countries.

Objectives of the Project:
The main objective of the project is: “To establish a regional burden of disease network in South-East Asia and China to address the burden of emerging NCDs, sharing the experiences and to increase the awareness of data usage for health policy priority setting.” By collaborating for synergistic manner among individual countries, it will improve the capacity for health research and development, and will be a step towards achieving SDGs. In terms of ASEAN Health cooperation, this networking activities can contribute to the “ASEAN 2025 Forging Ahead Together” and the Plan of Action (POA) to Implement the Joint Declaration on ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity (2016-2020) section 3.1 on Public Health.