Introduction
As the last Program Budget of the SP20–25, the Program Budget 2024–2025 (PB24–25) comes at a pivotal moment. While actions are already being implemented to help the Region recover from recent events, the 2024–2025 biennium will be critical for the Organization’s efforts to continue the recovery, accelerate actions, and undertake innovations to advance the health agenda and reduce health inequities in the Region and in countries. Targeted actions should be designed with an understanding of what is working well and what is not working or could be done differently, taking into consideration the regional and global context and the lessons learned from the pandemic.
During the biennium, PASB will work to enable sustainable post-pandemic recovery in countries across the Region and stem the backsliding in service coverage rates and health outcomes that resulted from the pandemic. At the same time, the Bureau will strive to advance the health agenda and work with countries and territories to strengthen their capacity to respond to future threats. The emphasis will be on completing implementation of the SP20–25 while fulfilling other regional and global mandates and priorities, with special attention to closing gaps and responding to the needs of populations living in situations of vulnerability. The Organization will continue transitioning its technical cooperation for COVID-19 from an emergency response modality to sustained core technical cooperation, incorporating the many lessons learned from 2020 to 2023.