Washington, D.C., 3 April 2026 (PAHO) — Two years after its launch, the Alliance for Primary Health Care in the Americas is supporting countries across the Region to accelerate health system transformation by strengthening coordination, aligning investments, and advancing national priorities grounded in primary health care (PHC).
Launched in December 2023 by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank (WB), the Alliance promotes a more coordinated approach to technical cooperation, financing, and policy dialogue at the country level, with strong leadership from Ministries of Health.
To date, 10 countries are actively participating in the Alliance—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay—working to strengthen planning processes and align investments with national health strategies.
In its first two years, the Alliance has facilitated the alignment of investment plans among PAHO, the World Bank, and the IDB, leveraging more than US$1 billion in five countries. These investments support priority areas such as digital health, noncommunicable diseases, mental health, the health workforce, and integrated health service delivery networks.
A central element of this progress has been the establishment of Mesas Consultivas, a permanent policy dialogue platforms that bring together health and finance authorities with technical and financial partners to coordinate priorities, reduce fragmentation, and strengthen national stewardship.
“The Alliance is helping countries move from fragmented efforts to more coordinated processes that align policy dialogue, technical cooperation, and financing around primary health care,” said James Fitzgerald, Director of Health Systems and Services at PAHO. “This is essential to accelerate progress toward more resilient, equitable, and people-centered health systems in the Americas.”
At the regional level, the Alliance has also advanced key public goods, including a joint technical consensus on integrated health service delivery networks and the report of The World Bank-PAHO Lancet Regional Health Americas Commission on PHC and Resilience (Lancet Commission), which underscores the urgency of strengthening primary health care to prevent avoidable health and economic losses.
Looking ahead, the Alliance will continue to expand coordination mechanisms, strengthen dialogue between the health and finance sectors, and support countries in translating plans into implementation, placing primary health care at the center of health system transformation.
