Disaster Preparedness in the Americas - PAHO 2011-12

January 4th 2010 - The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) serves as the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas. For almost three decades PAHO has been actively supporting countries in the Americas to reduce disaster risk at the same time improving the health of the population of the Americas through its Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Programme (PED). CIDA’s financial contribution is used to support PAHO’s efforts to strengthen disaster preparedness and response in the Americas. In 2010 PAHO’s region-wide activities focus on five strategic activity areas: i) improving disaster preparedness capacity in the health sector; ii) protecting health services from the risk of disasters; iii) supporting countries to respond to disaster events in the health sector; iv) forging stronger partnerships with national regional and global partners; v) and mainstreaming health disaster risk reduction across sectors. PAHO is working with health authorities and health sector institutions at all levels as well as civil society and other partners throughout the region with special attention to the most disaster-vulnerable countries including Bolivia Haiti and Honduras.