This publication presents the Agenda for the Americas on Health, Environment, and Climate Change 2021–2030 (the Agenda). The Agenda is a call to action to the health sector to lead the charge to a
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ddress environmental determinants of health in the Americas. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will work with Member States to achieve its goal and objective to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages using a sustainable and equitable approach that places a priority on reducing health inequity. The Agenda has been developed under the umbrella of the WHO Global Strategy on Health, Environment, and Climate Change, and builds upon the commitments set forth in the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030 and the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025. The Agenda was developed in consultation with the Technical Advisory Group and through a consensus-driven decision-making process with Member States during the 2019–2020 period. Looking toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3, the Agenda focuses on: improving the performance of environmental public health programs and institutions; fostering environmentally resilient and sustainable health systems; and promoting environmentally healthy and resilient cities and communities. Its implementation will be context-specific, based on the needs and realities of the countries. It will benefit countries and territories by promoting good governance practices, strengthening the leadership and coordination roles of the health sector, fostering cross-sectoral action, focusing on primary prevention, and enhancing evidence and communication. It will facilitate access to human, technical, and financial resources necessary to address environmental determinants of health and ensure that the Region is fully engaged in global health, environment, and climate change processes and agreements. The objective of the Agenda is to strengthen the capacity of health actors in the health and non-health sectors to address and adapt to environmental determinants of health (EDHs), prioritizing populations living in conditions of vulnerability, in order to meet Outcome 18 of the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025 directly and several other outcomes of the Plan indirectly. To address and adapt to the challenges of EDHs in the Region, an integrated and evidence-informed approach within the health sector and across sectors will be needed, one enabled, and supported by good governance practices, adequate management mechanisms, high-level political will, and adequate human, technical, technological, and financial resources.
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Unmet mental health needs in the Region of the Americas are a leading source of morbidity and mortality, which result in tremendous health, social, and economic consequences. The COVID-19 pandemic h
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as exacerbated the mental health crisis in the Region, necessitating urgent action at the highest levels of government and across sectors to build back better mental health now and for the future. This landmark report is the result of the PAHO High-Level Commission on Mental Health and COVID-19. It provides an analysis of the mental health situation in the Region, followed by a series of recommendations and corresponding actions to support countries in the Americas to prioritize and advance mental health using human rights- and equity-based approaches.
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Under the theme Equity at the Heart of Health, this Plan seeks to catalyze efforts in Member States to reduce inequities in health within and between countries and territories in order to improve
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health outcomes. The Plan identifies specific actions to tackle health inequality, including those recommended by the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, with guidance from the High-level Commission for Universal Health. Four cross-cutting themes are central to this Plan’s approach to addressing the determinants of health: equity, gender, ethnicity, and human rights
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[Preface]. For more than forty years Primary Health Care (PHC) has been recognized as the cornerstone of an effective and responsive health system. The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 reaffirmed the ri
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ght to the highest attainable level of health, with equity, solidarity and the right to health as its core values. It stressed the need for comprehensive health services, not only curative but services that addressed needs in terms of health promotion, prevention, rehabilitation and treatment of common conditions. A strong resolutive first level of care is the basis for health system development [...] The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has supported the countries in the establishment of interprofessional PHC teams, in the transformation of health education and in building capacity in the strategic planning, and management of human resources for health. Nursing can play a critical role in advancing PHC. New profiles such as the advanced practice nurses, as discussed in this document, can be fundamental in this effort, and in particular, in health promotion, disease prevention and care, especially in rural and underserved areas.
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In sum, the goal is to understand the need to increase fiscal space for health as a prerequisite, but within the framework of efforts to transform the health system. These changes should foster equi
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table and efficient expenditures and create or strengthen comprehensive integrated health systems with a first level of care capable of solving health problems and coordinating networks, based on a primary health care approach that offers not only curative care but also health promotion and disease prevention services.
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Core Knowledge for Emergency Preparedness and Response
In 2013 the World Health Organization (WHO) published the report Protecting health from climate change:vulnerability and adaptation assessment. Th
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e aim was to provide basic and flexible guidance on conducting national or subnational assessments of current and future vulnerability (the susceptibility of a population or region to harm) to the health risks of climate change, and of policies and programmes that could increase resilience, taking into account the multiple determinants of climate-sensitive health outcomes.
That guidance has been a very useful tool, applied to more than 50 countries and settings, and has helped countries to prepare their health contributions to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change national adaptation plans.
Since the launch of the guidance, WHO, technical partners such as Health Canada, and countries have learned much in terms of its applicability in different countries, at national and local levels.
At the same time, knowledge on climate change and health has increased.
WHO, the Pan American Health Organization and Health Canada have produced this updated version, which aims to better support countries in their assessments by proposing a simpler tool that incorporates
all lessons learned.
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This Strategy and Plan of Action on Health Promotion within the Context of the Sustainable Development
Goals 2019-2030 seeks to renew health promotion (HP) through social, political, and technical
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actions,
addressing the social determinants of health (SDH), he conditions in which people are born, grow, live,
work, and age (1). It seeks to improve health and reduce health inequities within the framework of
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Every day, schools engage in numerous activities that help promote the health and well-being of students, families, and communities. There is clear evidence of the benefits of the health-promoting s
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chools (HPS) approach, not only for improving overall health outcomes (physical, mental, and social) in the educational community but also for achieving better learning outcomes. The closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these benefits, as well as the close links between health, wellness, and education.
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Climate-related disasters, heatwaves, climate-sensitive diseases, and severe droughts and floods are taking lives and harming health, livelihoods, and ecosystems across the countries of the Caribbean, as in other Small Island Developing States (SIDS
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) around the world. In recognition of the high vulnerability of those countries, the World Health Organization launched in 2017 the Special Initiative on Climate Change and Health in Small Island Developing States, aiming to increase the resilience of these countries and territories to climate variability and climate change
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The burden of diabetes is enormous, positioning it as one of the main challenges facing public health today. Currently, it is estimated that 62 million people are living with diabetes in the Region of the Americas and projections show its prevalence
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will continue rising over the following years. The Region shows the highest number of years of healthy life lost (through either disability or premature death) due to diabetes worldwide. The high costs associated with its treatment produce a heavy economic burden. Its complications can seriously affect the quality of life of people living with diabetes, their families, and society and overload health systems. This report shows the latest internationally comparable data on diabetes and its main risk factors by year, country, and sex. It also includes a summary of the countries health systems’ response to diabetes, including national plans, targets, surveillance, guidelines, and access to essential drugs and technologies, and synthesizes information about diabetes-related complications and the close relationship between diabetes and other pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, and COVID-19. The data presented here reveal that, despite advances in national responses, diabetes continues to expand, and our response remains insufficient. This report aims to draw attention to the urgent need to strengthen efforts to prevent, diagnose, and control diabetes in the Region of the Americas.
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To support the achievement of health equity in the Region, the regional inter-agency movement Every Woman Every Child Latin America and the Caribbean (EWEC-LAC) advocates for and supports the use of equity and evidence-based policies, strategies and
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interventions to accelerate equitable progress in the health of women, children and adolescents. Although progress has been made, great inequities persist. Women from the LAC region’s poorest countries are almost four times more likely to die due to complications during childbirth than those living in the wealthiest countries. Through the years, several tools, instruments and methods (TIMs) have been developed by global, regional and country partners that can be used to conduct systematic equity-based analyses and/or re-designs of health systems, programs, strategies and interventions. The main purpose of this document is to present an overview of existing TIMs that can be used by policymakers, program managers, development partners, nongovernmental organizations, academia and civil society partners to strengthen systematic identification, analysis and responding to social inequities in the health of women, children and adolescents in LAC. The TIMs included were identified through a systematic search process
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This publication presents a comprehensive methodology to support the Member States of the Pan American Health
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Organization (PAHO) in preparing for and responding to heat-health risks in the Region of the Americas. It builds on World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization global documents, as well as on the disaster preparedness methodologies employed throughout the countries of the Region. This publication is part of an effort coordinated by PAHO to support Member States in multihazard preparedness, and includes: early warning system strengthening; threat characterization; activation and deactivation procedure definition; and institutional coordination. It engages different disciplines and recognizes the importance of intersectoral collaboration to respond to heat-health risks. It aims to bring awareness of the impacts of heat on the health of people of the Americas to public health decisionmakers, and thereby strengthen health service provision.
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This brochure presents a summary of the situation of health systems and services in the Americas as they progress toward the achievement of universal access to health and universal
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health coverage (universal health). The information provided presents an overview of the situation before the COVID-19 pandemic, how the pandemic has impacted health systems, and recommendations to address current and future challenges for building resilient health systems to advance toward universal health in the Americas.
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A Toolkit for Implementation. Module 1: An Overview of Implementation at National, Province and District Levels
Evaluating the Return on Investment of Scaling Up Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Psychosis