Initiative seeks to facilitate the exchange of technology solutions to common health problems in developing countries.
3 December 2010 (PAHO- SU/SSC) — The Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SU/SSC) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) forged a new partnership to establish a transaction platform for global health solutions.
SS-GATE for e-Health uses the existing SS-GATE electronic and physical transaction platform for the delivery of e-Health services to enable developing countries to exchange medical information, research, practices, and technologies. South- South Cooperation involves the collaboration of developing countries to accelerate progress toward U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate poverty.
The new platform combines PAHO's specialization in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for healthcare with SS-GATE's operational platform to create a dynamic synergy to improve global health.
The agreement was signed on November 25 by the Director of SU/SSC, Yiping Zhou, and the Knowledge Management and Communication Manager of PAHO, Marcelo D' Agostino—on behalf of the Director of PAHO, Mirta Roses—at Global South-South Development EXPO 2010, which was organized by SU/SSC, in Geneva, Switzerland.
"PAHO has been a very valuable partner", said Zhou. He noted that the platform will "list successful practices and healthcare system technologies that can be transferred to other developing countries." This is a "valuable transaction platform for the healthcare sector", he said.
D' Agostino stated that the "initiative is very important because of PAHO's mandate to develop an e-Health strategy together with an e-Health agenda." He stressed that this would be "one of the most important initiatives that we will have for the next year."
Teresa Liu, Project Manager for this new initiative at the SU/SSC stated that the "initial scope of the SS-GATE for e-Health system will expand in future years to all regions of the world to improve global health."
PAHO has over 100 years of experience working to improve health and living standards of the countries of the Americas and is the regional office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO).
One of SU/SSC's flagship projects, SS-GATE is a global and sustainable South-South transaction platform that facilitates market-driven and transparent transfers of assets and technologies for SME development in many economic sectors, such as agriculture, manufacturing, environmentally friendly technology as well as investment financing. This exchange system is Web-based with on-the-ground human support that provides value added end-to-end transaction services.
