The Government of Spain and the Pan American Health Organization strengthen ties and explore new areas of collaboration

The Minister for Health, Carolina Darias, has held a bilateral meeting with the management team of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), led by its director, Dr Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr, to strengthen the links between Spain and PAHO and explore new areas of mutual collaboration.

Spain has been collaborating with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for more than 40 years on key issues such as transplants, the fight against addictions, global health and the One Health concept in which bilateral initiatives can be further developed. This relationship has intensified in the fight against COVID-19, in which Spain is an international benchmark in the solidarity vaccine programme.

The vaccination campaign in Spain has been a national success, with more than 105 million doses administered; 92.9% of the Spanish population fully vaccinated; and in the current phase, 75.4% of those over 80 and 58.8% of those over 60 have the second booster dose.

In addition, Spain has led the way in strengthening Global Health, with such clear examples as the donation of COVID vaccines, which has allowed more than 70 million doses to be allocated since July 2021, an action that places Spain among the top 10 countries in the world in effective donation of vaccines to the COVAX mechanism.

PAHO's priorities for the coming years include positioning PAHO as the lead organisation in assisting countries in the Region of the Americas to improve the health and well-being of their populations; overcoming persistent inequalities; building health systems that can respond to emerging threats; post-pandemic recovery; and achieving universal health care.

Strengthening health systems

PAHO wants to take advantage of the pandemic in which health receives greater attention to strengthen health systems in order to overcome existing deficiencies and guarantee the right to universal health, and also to promote Pan-Americanism and solidarity in the region.

The strategic pillars on which PAHO will focus its mandate are commitment to assist member states to end the pandemic in the Region of the Americas; advancing the application of lessons learned from the pandemic and addressing vulnerabilities, to better prepare for new threats; ensuring rapid and equitable access to health innovations for all countries in the Region; building resilient national health systems based on renewed primary health care; and strengthening PAHO's capacity to support member states.

One of the objectives of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU from July is to continue forging ties with America, especially with Latin America, also in issues related to health. To this end, Spain will hold a major meeting in the context of the EU-CELAC Coordination and Cooperation Mechanism, to intensify political dialogue, coordination and cooperation between the two regions and to contribute effectively to the fight against the world drug problem on the basis of shared responsibility.

With the aim of promoting cross-border health cooperation, the Government of Spain, in coordination with the Ministries of Health of PAHO member countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala, is carrying out training activities through Spanish doctors from the National Health System in different specialities, ranging from Anaesthesia to Surgery, including Resuscitation and Internal Medicine.

In this sense, the Ministry of Health, through the CSAI Foundation, manages training stays in combination with the AECID scholarship programme, as well as internships as observers of experts from other countries.

The Government of Spain is fully committed to continuing to advance the training of professionals and cross-border cooperation by including new PAHO countries in these programmes.

Other areas of collaboration discussed at the meeting included the response to HIV and the fight against the stigma; tackling tuberculosis and malaria; and promoting the One Health approach.

Non official translation