Health services is about promoting the development and strengthening of health systems in the countries of the Region, promoting progress towards universal health, and taking as central the right to health, equity, and solidarity.
The External Funding Operations to Health Systems dashboard provides access to a database of the loans and grants approved since the formal start of the pandemic in March 2020. The operations registered in the database include the financing of health and non-health activities. The dashboard is PAHO initiative for tracking funding operations from the main financial institutions and donors to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Bearing in mind that the health situation of the Americas has improved considerably in recent decades, social policies aiming to alleviate poverty and improve health and well-being have resulted in significant improvements in life expectancies and health outcomes, and that national health systems are more inclusive and responsive.
- Policies supporting sustained development and investment in health systems and social and economic stability contribute both directly and indirectly to improved health and well-being, alleviation of poverty, elimination of inequities, and health system resilience.
- Health systems remain highly vulnerable to risks that significantly impact local, national, and global health, debilitating the response capacity of health systems and eliminating gains in health outcomes and social and economic development.
The technical cooperation work of the organization in the areas of health services and access is planned according to the Strategy for Universal Access to Health and Universal Health Coverage in the region of the Americas. This strategy articulates the conditions that enable countries to guide and evaluate their policies and measure progress around four simultaneous and interdependent lines of action, and are the following:
- Expanding equitable access to comprehensive, quality, people- and community-centered health services
- Strengthening stewardship and governance
- Increasing and improving financing, with equity and efficiency, and advancing toward the elimination of direct payment that constitutes a barrier to access at the point of service
- Strengthening intersectoral action to address the social determinants of health
