Disaster Preparedness in the Americas - PAHO 2011-2012

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 as working to improve the health of the population of the Americas through its Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Programme (PED). CIDA’s support aims to assist PAHO in working with governments in South America and the Caribbean to improve capacity to reduce disaster risks in the health sector and to provide timely and effective response to natural disasters. Activities to be completed during the funding period are guided by PAHO’s 2008-2012 Strategic Plan strategic objectives of: Improving disaster preparedness capacity in the health sector; Protecting health services from the risk of disasters; Supporting countries in the Americas to respond to disaster events in the health sector Forging stronger partnerships with national regional and global partners and; Maintaining health disaster risk reduction across all institutional partners.