GREAT BAY, Sint Maarten (DCOMM) – Representatives from the Sint Maarten Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour (Ministry VSA), has taken part in a National Consultation for the stratification of programmatic priorities of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Strategic Plan 2014-2019.
The consultation that took place last month in Aruba also included national authorities from Aruba, Curacao, the Netherlands representing Caribbean Netherlands (Saba, St. Eustatius and Bonaire), and representatives from PAHO.
The Strategic Plan of PAHO 2014-2019 established the framework for the stratification of programmatic priorities (Resolution CD52.R8). This framework is intended to serve as a key instrument to guide the allocation of the human and financial resources available to the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PASB) and to focus efforts to mobilize the resources needed to implement the Strategic Plan and its respective programs and budgets.
The method will be applied by the national authorities of each country and territory of the Region in order to establish the program priorities according to the national context and the needs for technical cooperation with PAHO.
The consolidation of the national results will make it possible to establish the stratification of the regional program priorities which will guide the formulation of the program and budget, and the assignment and mobilization of resource. The stratification allows for the identification of those program areas that require greater attention or collective effort together with the Member States – that is, setting priorities within priorities.
Dr. Virginia Asin, Head of the Collective Prevention Services (CPS), a department within Ministry VSA said progress was made at the meeting where those in attendance got familiar with the PAHO-Hanlon methodology for the program priority stratification and its application to planning and budget processes.
“We also reviewed the Work Plan 2016-2017 with each entity and discussed the health situation of each island. Another agenda point for discussion was the World Health Organization (WHO) program budget 2018-2019 which is the third and last within the 12th General Program of Work. This will continue to build upon the Program Budget 2016-2017 which for the aforementioned period was budgeted at around US$4 billion.
“Two major factors for the budget planning process for WHO is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the reform of WHO’s work in emergencies. The aforementioned will further shape the Program Budget 2018-2019.
“Sint Maarten’s participation in this progress is very important. The country is able to source funding for projects and programs which will benefit the health care sector and the population overall,” Dr. Asin said.
