From the outset, the American governments and their health authorities realize the importance of health to social development. In the 19th century, infectious disease epidemics had ravaged Europe and the Americas--not only claiming countless lives but braking socioeconomic progress. Thus, at the dawn of the 20th century, a main motivation for establishing the Pan American Sanitary Bureau is the furtherance of trade. Increasingly, economic well-being comes to be seen as bound to health.

At the historic meeting at Punta del Este, Uruguay in 1961, American leaders recognize that States are responsible for promoting health as part of development. The Alliance for Progress of the Organization of American States that grew out of that accord launches a major cooperative effort by the governments aimed at accelerating progress and improving living conditions in the Region. In their Ten­Year Health Plan for the 1970s, Ministers of Health of the Americas declare health a universal right, recognize the importance of social participation in decisionmaking, and recommend that health policies and strategies be incorporated into economic and social development. The 30th World Health Assembly (1977) resolves that the governments' and who's main social target should be "attainment by all citizens of the world by the year 2000 of a level of health that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life." The 1977-1980 edition of Health Conditions in the Americas claims to enable "a full picture of social and economic development within the Region."

In penning the quadrennial report of the Director in 1981, Dr. Héctor Acuña notes that "new currents are apparent in the thinking of health leaders in the Americas. Foremost among them is a new willingness to accept that Health for All must be PAHO's overriding objective. From that general premise, they can then deduce those broad policies that would fulfill it."

By the 1990s, under the leadership of Dr. Carlyle Guerra de Macedo, the concept of health as a component of development becomes firmly rooted. Throughout the ensuing decade's deepening economic crisis, the Organization mobilizes resources for priority programs and encourages subregional initiatives so that countries can pool assets to address common problems. PAHO advocates a more influential role for the health sector in the crafting of political agendas that decide the distribution of countries' resources.

Today, PAHO conducts research that shows that health is a necessary condition for securing human development that facilitates economic growth, advances education, preserves the environment, and secures the freedom essential for human dignity.