Teams from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Ministry of Health (Minsa) hold preparatory workshops where they address various issues in public health in order to finalize a single document, which will be addressed during the 30th PAHO Conference that It will be held in the city of Washington DC, United States.
Topics such as retaking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), managing the COVID-19 pandemic, policies to strengthen national regulatory systems for medicines and other health technologies, disaster risks, cervical cancer, health in children, women and adolescents, urban health, epilepsy, genomic surveillance, etc., are dealt with by national and regional specialists and technicians on this day.
In this meeting, the important thing is to retake the strategies in order to meet the SDGs, to fine-tune the health policies of the countries and the region. and in the end the election of the new director is expected, taking into account that Panama has its own candidate in the proposal of Dr. Camilo Alleyne.
For the director of International Affairs and Technical Cooperation of the Ministry of Health (MINSA) Thays Noriega, it is important to redouble efforts and work as a team in multilateral spaces.
He stated that the capacities of MINSA must be strengthened and reiterated support for the fulfillment of the commitments in the health agenda for the Americas.
The Panamanian delegation will have more tools to participate, for the 30th PAHO conference, it will be proactive participation that will benefit the population, he said.
For her part, the PAHO/WHO representative in Panama, Ana Riviére Cinnamond, explained some details about the preparatory meeting with the Panama team for the Pan American meeting in Washington at the end of September.
“Resolutive projects will be presented on specific health issues and the idea is to present these projects, identify comments and within the conference,” added Riviére.
He added that each of the countries will be presenting verbally, they will be debated and comments and suggesting changes, modifications and extensions.
During this meeting in the US, the next regional director of PAHO will be elected, with the former Minister of Health, Camilo Alleyne, one of the six candidates nominated to lead this instance of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The election of the new director will take place by secret ballot, during the 30th Pan American Sanitary Conference, which will be held from September 26 to 30 next.
Pursuant to PAHO’s constitution, the director will serve a five-year term and may not be reelected more than once.
The elected candidate will take office on February 1, 2023 and will finish his term on January 31, 2028.
Four strategic lines:
The workshop highlights that the document that will be prepared and presented to the PAHO member countries, four (4) strategic lines:
· Strengthen the capacity of national health authorities to lead and manage the transformation of the entire system towards integrated care.
· Transform the organization and management of services in order to improve the experience of people, the health of the population and the quality, equity, efficiency and effectiveness of health care.
· Go from theory to practical implementation.
· Empower people and communities and encourage their participation to improve their health and strengthen institutional learning.
