Solidifying the position of PAHO as the leading health authority in the Region of the Americas: The Organization’s strategic leadership and positioning were instrumental in influencing policy decisions and in enhancing its engagement with Member States and partners in the Americas. To accomplish this, PASB boosted its impact and visibility by disseminating critical policy papers aligned with the priorities of Member States and showcasing its efforts in various fora. These included the Summit of the Americas in 2022, where PASB advocated for increased investments in HRH in the Americas; the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2023, where the Director highlighted the need for new models of health financing, decentralized services, an expanded health workforce, and strengthened digital and medical technology; the World Health Summit in 2023, where the Director participated in over 10 side events to raise awareness of PAHO’s mission; and the OAS Permanent Council session, where the Director’s annual reports were presented to the OAS ambassadors. In addition, PASB’s leadership further extended its engagement with some Heads of State to increase awareness of the health situation in the Region of the Americas and to share strategic thinking and plans for improvements and recovery in this early post-pandemic period. This enabled PAHO to showcase its initiatives and collaborations with countries, solidifying the Organization’s leadership on critical health issues facing the Region.

Enhancing health cooperation at country level: During the biennium, the Policy on Cooperation among Countries for Health Development and an associated funding mechanism were relaunched. This led to several new projects, including several whose results are presented in this report. Additionally, by the end of 2023, 16 Country Cooperation Strategies had been developed, providing a road map for country-specific health priorities and timely interventions. A concerted effort was made to refocus on strategies for the key countries, aligning with global health goals and priorities and ensuring that resources were directed toward areas with the greatest potential for impact.

Engaging with the media to position PAHO as a reputable authority and purveyor of accurate public health information: Building on lessons learned from the Organization’s engagement with the media during the COVID-19 pandemic, PASB adopted an even more proactive approach to message setting, effectively combating misinformation and amplifying the voices of its leadership. The strategic dissemination of well-crafted content highlighting its technical cooperation priorities significantly bolstered PAHO’s visibility, especially during the post-pandemic era.

Carrying PAHO forward with renewed efficiency, transparency, and accountability: The Director launched the PAHO Forward initiative in 2023 as an Organization-wide approach to guide multiple modernization initiatives in a collaborative and coordinated manner. Up-to-date, innovative, streamlined, and reinforced management policies, processes, and systems are important elements of this initiative, ensuring that PAHO is well positioned to expand its relevance, technical expertise, and leadership in the Region and globally. In addition, efforts focused on bolstering the visibility of PAHO, increasing its country focus, and building capacity to deliver technical cooperation, while enhancing PASB’s human resource performance and driving innovation to move the Organization forward. The introduction of PAHO Forward yielded significant progress in strengthening internal controls, modernizing operational processes, and increasing efficiencies.

Enhancing the use of internal controls: During the biennium, PASB conducted 18 internal audit assignments at country level. The Bureau addressed the external audit recommendations on strategic planning and budgeting and included action points to improve results-based management across the Organization. Additionally, the Audit Committee’s recommendation on the PAHO Evaluation Policy was closed, based on the progress made in 2022. PAHO’s internal audit reports can now be accessed on request by Member States.

Preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse in PAHO: Reports on preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse in PAHO were presented to the Executive Committee of PAHO in 2022 and 2023. This report provided a comprehensive overview of the measures implemented to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse within PAHO. It also detailed additional steps taken to strengthen the Organization’s policies and practices in this regard, aimed at minimizing the risk of such incidents, enhancing reporting mechanisms, protecting victims, and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable.

Leveraging strategic partnerships to influence the health agenda at all levels and support the fulfillment of public health commitments: The Organization strengthened its partnerships with Canada and the United States of America, resulting in significant funding for the COVID-19 response ($75 million from the United States and $33 million from Canada). Partnerships were also reinforced with the European Union, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank, and with regional and subregional integration mechanisms, among others. PASB continued to collaborate closely with WHO to implement the Action for Results Group plan to heighten impact at country level. Under this initiative, $20 million was approved to strengthen PAHO/WHO country offices in 2024–2025.

Strengthening transparent and strategic engagement with Member States on results-based management: Toward this end, an innovative product, the PAHO Program Budget 2024–2025 digital portal, was developed to enhance transparency, provide more detailed information, and strengthen the Bureau’s accountability. In line with the PAHO Evaluation Policy and plan of action, three external evaluations were completed, covering PAHO’s response to COVID-19 (published in June 2023), PAHO’s technical cooperation on noncommunicable diseases (August 2023), and implementation of PAHO’s results-based management framework (early 2024). The COVID-19 evaluation findings and recommendations were presented to Member States during the 172nd Session of the Executive Committee in June 2023.