This project, funded by the European Commission, analysed how resources can be deployed effectively and efficiently in Asian countries in the event of a pandemic. Its goal was to provide a framework to evaluate health system operational capacity and, in four settings (Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan), to systematically determine operational capacity gaps, in order to sustain the containment and mitigation of pandemic influenza. With additional support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the study was expanded to cover two additional countries: Lao PDR and Cambodia. 

Operational capacity gaps were determined under four hypothetical pandemic scenarios. Resources available were determined in order to address containment and mitigation outcomes. Resources were mapped at two levels, the enabling environment and the organisational environment tasked with implementation. Governance arrangements were evaluated according to the same pandemic influenza scenarios, which were drawn upon in evaluations of each setting to ensure lessons learned are coherent. With ministerial support across the sites, the results from this work provide a critical resource for strategic and operational pandemic influenza plans, and for decisions about future resource allocation in the event of a pandemic.