Health interregionalism in combating communicable diseases

This last decade, regional organizations progressively became unavoidable actors of regional health governance and have been supported by some global health actors to strengthen such a role. Among these actors, the European Union (EU) is the only regional organization that implements health initiatives in cooperation with its regional counterparts. This article focuses on such “health interregionalism” toward Southeast Asia and Africa and in the field of communicable diseases, with the main objective of assessing its nature and identifying its main functions. It concludes that although appreciated and needed, the EU’s health interregionalism should better reflect the EU’s experience in regional health governance in order to represent a unique instrument of development aid and an added value for regional organizations