Ottawa, Canada, 15 November 2016 (PAHO/WHO) - Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) met in Ottawa this week with high-level Canadian authorities to provide updates on a number of joint PAHO/WHO-Canada cooperation initiatives and to discuss future opportunities for Canada and PAHO to work together in the global and regional health arenas. This was the first time high-level officials from PAHO have met with Canadian authorities in Ottawa under the new government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Canada, which became a PAHO/WHO Member State in 1971, is a key collaborative partner that provides important financial support for PAHO/WHO's technical cooperation in areas including maternal and child health, health systems strengthening, and emergency preparedness and response. Etienne and Canadian officials reviewed progress in these and other areas and discussed current and potential collaboration on other issues such as regulatory harmonization, antimicrobial resistance, emerging and re-emerging communicable diseases such as Zika and cholera, and chronic noncommunicable diseases.
Etienne's two-day agenda in Ottawa included meetings with high-ranking officials of Global Affairs Canada, Health Canada, the Canadian Public Health Agency, the International Development Research Centre, and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. She was accompanied by PAHO/WHO Deputy Director Isabella Danel and Director of External Relations, Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Alberto Kleiman.
Photo: Left to Right. Andrew Shore, Director Interamerican Relations at Global Affairs Canada; PAHO/WHO Deputy Director Isabella Danel; PAHO/WHO Director Carissa F. Etienne; Peter Boehm, Deputy Minister for International Development at Global Affairs Canada; and PAHO/WHO Alberto Kleiman, Director, External Relations, Partnerships & Resource Mobilization.
