The PAHO Award for Administration, created in 1969, is bestowed in recognition of an outstanding contribution in the field of administration within the framework of national health services.

The original procedures and criteria for conferring this award were adopted by the 18th Pan American Sanitary Conference in 1970 and have been amended a number of times to better reflect the demands of the new millennium and the strategies with which the PAHO Secretariat and the Member Governments should address them. At the same time, the changes recognize the importance of having a larger, more diverse pool of candidates to permit a selection process consistent with these challenges.

The Organization is now receiving nominations for the 2013 edition of the award. There is extensive information on PAHO’s Awards and Honors page, for anyone interested in sending a nomination.

La conmemoración del Día Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas, este 9 de agosto, está dedicada al empoderamiento de las voces indígenas, a través de sus medios de comunicación. Se resalta así la importancia que tiene para los pueblos originarios la capacidad de levantar la voz, expresarse en el propio lenguaje, transmitir sus saberes y sus demandas, y ser escuchados para hacer visibles y reconocidas sus necesidades y potencialidades, sus contribuciones y trascendencia para la sociedad.

Detrás de la desigualdad e inequidad que históricamente han afectado a nuestros pueblos indígenas, y que aún les afectan a pesar de los innegables avances en los últimos años, ha estado siempre presente la discriminación, la marginalización, la negación o negligencia sobre su presencia. Continue reading →

I am happy to report that representatives of several international organizations have pledged to promote investments in water and sanitation infrastructure, as key steps toward the elimination of cholera from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The pledges were made during the launch of a new Regional Coalition on Water and Sanitation for the Elimination of Cholera in the Island of Hispaniola, on June 4 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, at the 33rd Congress of AIDIS.

The members of the new coalition are the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), UNICEF, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (AIDIS). The members pledge to support efforts by the governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to harmonize and streamline international assistance and investments in water and sanitation infrastructure aimed at eliminating cholera from the island. They also issued a declaration urging other governments and international organizations to support these efforts.

Continue reading →

The PAHO Award for Administration is a recognition conferred every year by the Governments of the Americas through their representatives in the meetings of the Governing Bodies of the Pan American Health Organization, in recognition of an outstanding contribution in the field of administration within the framework of the national health services. This Award has a long tradition dating back to 1969. The Award is conferred on a candidate who has made a significant contribution in his or her home country and in the Region of the Americas, to improving health development through the management or execution of services and programs, teaching, and research.

In 2012 the Pan American Sanitary Conference takes place. Thus, this should be a special occasion to grant the oldest award conferred by our Organization to those who have made outstanding contributions to the strengthening of health systems through management. The closing date for receiving nominations to the Award is March 31.

For more information please visit www.paho.org/award

We are convinced that access to health information is an integral aspect of human rights, requiring us to network with partners that will enable us to expand our local and regional capacities and thus multiply the available social capital in our countries. In this regard, we are working on the use of emerging information technologies for information and knowledge management and have decided to adopt blogs as a new channel of communication for the Organization.