PAHO’s strategy for building resilient health systems acknowledges that increasing public investment in health to at least 6% of GDP, eliminating direct payments as a barrier to access, and prioritizing the first level of care are more important than ever (1). Therefore, as the specialized international public health agency, PAHO/WHO welcomes the efforts made in this direction by governments and the international community in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic but sees it essential to monitor the availability of funds to make the financing sustainable and predictable, and its allocation by purpose in alignment with the Universal Health objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030.
Under this project, PAHO / WHO started collecting, analyzing, and systematizing funding operations from the leading international financial institutions and donors for Latin American and Caribbean countries. The information about the sources, levels, and structure of funds can serve as a tool to identify the resources available to build sustainable, resilient health systems as the priorities of countries and funders.
(1) Pan American Health Organization. Strategy for building resilient health systems and post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery to sustain and protect public health gains. [Internet]. 59th Directing Council of PAHO; 73rd session of the WHO regional committee for the Americas. The virtual session, 20-24 September 2021; Washington, DC, Washington, DC: PAHO; 2021 (Document CD59/11). Available from: https://www.paho.org/en/documents/cd5911-strategy-building-resilient-he…