PAHO and the MDGs

PAHO is a key contributor to the effort towards the attainment of the MDGs in the countries of the Americas. The Organization’s vision on the MDGs was approved by member countries during the 45th Session of the Directing Council in September 2004, and led to an official resolution calling for countries and PAHO to use the MDGs as a guide for national and international efforts towards better health for the peoples of the Region.

MDGs approach:

By nature, in order to be achieved, the MDGs require focalized actions targeting society’s most vulnerable groups, and coordinated efforts towards poverty reduction, and the improvement of health, education, gender equity, and the environment. In other words, it is necessary to have a synergistic approach in order to successfully reduce extreme poverty and its consequences to health. Therefore, the MDGs require coherent public policies that strengthen intersectoriality and that are directed to the populations most in need.

Participation from all sectors:

The Goals are also based on the notion that the citizens of the World should be awarded economic, social, and cultural rights, among which is the right to health. In that regard, social protection for health was recognized as a key element for national progress. The countries of the Region are committed to broadening prevention, care, and promoting strategies, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable segments of society, thus taking on the challenge, and the commitment, to ensure social cohesion to its peoples. Furthermore, given the interconnectedness of the Goals, it is impossible to advance towards the achievement of the MDGs without the creation of strategies based on the analysis of the social determinants of health, and the establishment of policies requiring the participation of a multiplicity of sectors in unison. The social determinants of health pertain to the specific characteristics of the social context as well as the ways in which social conditions affect health and how these can be modified through informed action. They must be analyzed bearing in mind the historical and structural factors that have placed women and ethnic minorities at a disadvantage. They also require the attentive study and consideration of geography, ethnicity, race and generational groups.