Improving the Resiliency of Health Sector Responses in Emergencies in the Americas - PAHO 2013

November 2013 – The Americas region which includes Latin America and the Caribbean is prone to natural disasters and other humanitarian crises such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake and subsequent cholera epidemic. The frequency and impact of natural disasters in the Americas region has worsened over time. While some member states of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) region have extremely strong disaster preparedness risk reduction and response capacities other member states have much weaker ability to plan for mitigate and respond to humanitarian crises. With DFATD support PAHO aims to prevent death illness and disability resulting from natural disasters and other humanitarian crises by strengthening the ability of national health ministries and regional health sectors to respond on a national scale in a more effective and timely way. This project aims to better equip national health experts responding to disasters and other humanitarian crises by providing them with training and by developing policies and guidelines to guide their work. The project also seeks to create an improved roster of health experts that can be deployed to respond immediately in the aftermath of a disaster or other humanitarian crisis.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (i) improved capacity of the health sectors in Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) member states to respond to emergencies and disasters through updated rosters for National Health Response Teams; (ii) improved capacity in the health sectors of PAHO member states to respond to emergencies and disasters through tools and advocacy for the establishment and operation of cluster coordination mechanisms training sessions internal guidelines and policies; (iii) enhanced capacity of the health cluster to respond to disasters through the creation of a pool of people to serve as national health cluster coordinators; and (iv) enhanced capacity of the health cluster to respond to disasters through the implementation of the health cluster mechanism.