The partnership between the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) spans three decades and has been instrumental in advancing a multitude of public health goals in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and improving access to quality health services for the most vulnerable populations in the region.
The overall goal of the current USAID-PAHO Umbrella Agreement (2016-2021) is to improve health outcomes in the areas of tuberculosis, malaria, neglected infectious diseases, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health, through strengthening sustainable health systems and reducing health inequalities. This includes approaches that improve the quality and increase availability of health information, analyze and address the impact of social determinants of health, and leverage regional partnerships towards efficient, technically sound, inter-programmatic, and cross-sectoral interventions that will positively impact regional health outcomes.
Over the tenure of the PAHO/USAID collaboration, USAID’s financial investments in the Americas have filled in an important resource gap that has enabled PAHO to carry out technical cooperation and information exchange with priority Member States. Perhaps more significantly, this support has served as a catalyst for additional investments and co-financing of public health programs by national governments, moving USAID priority countries towards greater self-reliance.
