- Amid an increasingly complex and volatile global health landscape, PAHO’s future-readiness will depend not only on its technical strengths, but also on its strategic agility. Accordingly, amongst the innovations the Organization has embraced for the SP26–31 period is the use of targeted accelerators to create momentum for systemic transformation, to mitigate risks and take advantage of opportunities to advance toward SP26–31 targets. Accelerators are targeted high-impact interventions or initiatives, including services, tools, methodologies, policy options, must-dos, or leapfrogging opportunities, that have the potential to accelerate progress across multiple impact targets and dimensions of health development. They signify high-impact entry-points for triggering change or implementing proven game-changing actions. They are areas of development that, because of their transformative potential, deserve particular attention, institutional boosts, and organizational capabilities to accelerate transformation. The accelerators will seek to tackle root causes rather than only the symptoms of issues being addressed. They will be promoted to scale proven interventions, taking pilots or innovations to national or regional levels, and to coordinate actors, align fragmented efforts, and pool resources around shared objectives. They will be promoted to scale proven interventions, taking pilots or innovations to national or regional levels, and to coordinate actors, align fragmented efforts, and pool resources around shared objectives.
- With a focus on driving acceleration across multiple impact results, to either speed up low-cadence work or to accelerate already fast-moving work, the Organization has identified several areas that present strong opportunities for acceleration due to their existing momentum, proven intervention pathways, or enabling role in implementation. These “quick wins” build on existing frameworks and proven methods, offering tangible opportunities to scale up interventions rapidly and effectively, thereby serving as adaptive vehicles for both advancing already dynamic areas of impact and supporting lagging but strategically important domains.
A differentiated approach is required for successful adoption of accelerators—one that balances short-term gains with strategic long-term investments. Therefore, the following four initial accelerator groups have been identified for application during implementation of the SP26–31 to target impact areas identified as being either already operating at a relatively fast pace and ready for acceleration, or operating at a slower pace currently, and that would benefit from acceleration to “catch up”:
Leapfrogging health initiatives and approaches for country impact: Accelerators in this category significantly impact access and coverage of health services with a primary health care approach. Examples include targeted immunization microplanning at the territorial level to target a specific disease, and the elimination of out-of-pocket expenditures at the point of care. Other key accelerators within this group include PAHO’s flagship initiatives, such as the Disease Elimination Initiative, Better Care for NCDs, digital transformation, the Regional Revolving Funds, regional production, and Zero Preventable Maternal Deaths, which serve as strategic instruments to address the most critical health challenges facing the Region.
Scaling innovation and health technologies: Accelerators in this category can rapidly shift health trends, provided that barriers to access are eliminated. Three different subcategories of technology are identified as accelerators within this group: i) the digital transformation of the health sector, with emphasis on the expansion of the use of AI and digital health solutions, including telehealth, aligned with the PHC approach for health systems strengthening; ii) health technologies facing barriers to access such as the access to and use of Hepatitis C antivirals and the decentralization of HIV diagnostics at the point of care; iii) the rapid incorporation of new health technologies and uptake of state-of-the art technology within public health programs. Examples here include combination anti-hypertensives under the HEARTS initiative, new HPV home or point-of-care testing, and immunobiologicals for cancer care and management.
- Leveraging PAHO’s regional public goods: PAHO has developed several initiatives that can contribute to the acceleration of public health gains in the Region, if targeted and utilized for this purpose. These initiatives, here referenced as regional public goods, include: the PAHO Regional Revolving Funds (the Revolving Fund for Access to Vaccines and the Revolving Fund for Strategic Public Health Supplies) supporting the maintenance and expansion of critical public health programs throughout the Region; the PAHO Virtual Campus for Public Health, the Organization’s educational platform that reaches more than 3 million health workers, Regional Digital Public Goods for supporting Telehealth, and the Health Information Platform for the Americas (PLISA) a one-stop portal for policymakers, researchers, and public health professionals, offering authoritative, up-to-date, and interactive health data across the Region.
- Targeting strategic partnerships and networks: PAHO partnerships have a critical role to play in accelerating the achievement of the SP26–31health outcomes. Some of the partnerships developed in recent years present opportunities to scale capacity and response at the national level in target areas. Examples of such partnerships include the Alliance for Primary Health Care, which strengthens national capacity to expand primary health care under the stewardship of the ministry of health, leveraging concessional financing through the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); the Pan American Highway for Digital Health, a joint initiative between PAHO and the IDB for the rapid digital transformation of the heath sector; the collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to scale and maintain immunization; the Healthy Municipalities, Cities and Communities Movement of the Americas, a regional platform of local governments that offers the opportunity to build strategic alliances and partnerships with other actors engaged in health and wellness; and the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centers, which constantly contribute to improving health in the Region.