Kampong Cham, 20 May 2026: As part of its efforts to support the ASEAN Essential Diagnostics List Initiative (AEDLI), ERIA, in collaboration with the Japan Institute for Health Security (JIHS), participated in the Workshop on Translating the National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) in Cambodia into Khmer.

The workshop brought together representatives from the government, national hospitals, laboratory experts, and development partners to advance discussions on the validation and finalisation of Cambodia’s NEDL. The NEDL was developed through the two consecutive technical working group (TWG) meetings – the first held in Kampong Cham in November 2025, and the second in Kampot in February 2026 – both supported by ERIA and JIHS.

The 20 May workshop was opened by Dr Sau Sokunna, Deputy Director of the Department of Hospital Services at Cambodia’s Ministry of Health. He underscored that the NEDL is not merely a list, but a standardised tool to identify availability gaps, thereby providing a solid evidence base for decision‑making.

Participants discussed key measures to ensure that the NEDL is readily available and actionable, including approaches to defining internal and external quality assurance, data collection, and reagent procurement within the document. During the discussion, technical guidance was provided by Dr Shogo Kanamori and Ms Tomoka Takano from JIHS, as well as Dr Antonio Villanueva and Dr Hiroyuki Kiyohara from ERIA.

Dr Kiyohara, Project Manager for Health and Development Policy at ERIA, presented the preliminary results of the gap assessment survey conducted under the Ministry of Health of Cambodia, with support from JIHS and ERIA. This survey targeted all levels of public health facilities and programmes, including national hospitals, national programmes, referral hospitals, as well as health centres.

The workshop concluded with remarks from Dr Sokunna, who announced that the ministry would proceed with the official dissemination of the NEDL.