OEA - Documento CP ACTA. 2379 25 de 2025

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OEA/Ser.G

CP/ACTA 2379/22

15 junio 2022

ACTA DE LA SESIÓN ORDINARIA

DEL CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA

ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS

CELEBRADA EL 15 DE JUNIO DE 2022

Transcripción corregida

Esta transcripción corregida se somete a la aprobación del Consejo Permanente. Una vez aprobada, constituirá la versión final del acta.

INDICE

Página

Nómina de los miembros que asistieron a la sesión 1

Aprobación del proyecto de orden del día 2

Informe Anual de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud a la Asamblea

General en su quincuagésimo segundo período ordinario de sesiones 3

Trigésimo segundo informe del Secretario General al Consejo Permanente

sobre la Misión de Apoyo de la Organización de los Estados Americanos

al Proceso de Paz en Colombia (MAPP/OEA) 29

Informe Anual del Comité de Auditoría de la OEA al Consejo Permanente para

para los años terminados el 31 de diciembre de 2021 y 2020 39

Trabajos preparatorios para el quincuagésimo segundo período ordinario de

sesiones de la Asamblea General 49

Aprobación de actas de sesiones del Consejo Permanente 51

Otros asuntos 51

DOCUMENTOS CONSIDERADOS EN LA SESIÓN

(SE PUBLICAN POR SEPARADO)

CP/doc. 5784/22, Informe Anual del Comité de Auditoría al Consejo Permanente para los años terminados el 31 de diciembre de 2021 y 2020

CP/doc. 5788/22, Informe Anual de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud al quincuagésimo segundo período ordinario de sesiones de la Asamblea General.

CP/doc. 5789/22, Trigésimo Segundo Informe de la Misión de Apoyo al Proceso de Paz de Colombia (MAPP-OEA).

CP/INF. 9386/22, Nota del Secretario General mediante la que solicita que el tema “Presentación del Trigésimo Segundo Informe de la Misión de Apoyo al Proceso de Paz de Colombia (MAPP-OEA)” sea incluido en el orden del día de la sesión ordinaria del Consejo Permanente prevista para el 15 de junio de 2022.

CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS

ACTA DE LA SESIÓN ORDINARIA

CELEBRADA EL 15 DE JUNIO DE 2022

En la ciudad de Washington, D. C., a las tres de la tarde del miércoles 15 de junio de 2022, celebró sesión ordinaria el Consejo Permanente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos. Presidió la sesión la Embajadora Elizabeth Darius-Clarke, Representante Permanente de Santa Lucía y Presidenta del Consejo Permanente. Asistieron los siguientes miembros:

Embajador Everson Hull, Representante Permanente de Saint Kitts y Nevis y Vicepresidente del Consejo Permanente

Embajador Anthony Phillips-Spencer, Representante Permanente de Trinidad y Tobago

Embajadora Lou-Anne Gilchrist, Representante Permanente de San Vicente y las Granadinas

Embajador Noel Anderson Lynch, Representante Permanente de Barbados

Embajador Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado, Representante Permanente de Colombia

Embajadora Yolande Yvonne Smith, Representante Permanente de Grenada

Embajador Gustavo Tarre Briceño, Representante Permanente de Venezuela

Embajadora Luz Elena Baños Rivas, Representante Permanente de México

Embajadora María del Carmen Roquebert, Representante Permanente de Panamá

Embajador Carlos Alberto Raimundi, Representante Permanente de la Argentina

Embajador Washington Abdala, Representante Permanente del Uruguay

Embajador Héctor Enrique Arce Zaconeta, Representante Permanente de Bolivia

Embajador Samuel Hinds, Representante Permanente de Guyana

Embajador Harold Forsyth Mejía, Representante Permanente del Perú

Embajador Otávio Brandelli, Representante Permanente del Brasil

Embajador Chet Donovan Neymour, Representante Permanente del Commonwealth de las Bahamas

Embajador Jan Marten Willem Schalkwijk, Representante Permanente de Suriname

Embajador Mauricio Montalvo Samaniego, Representante Permanente del Ecuador

Embajador Carlos Roberto Quesada López, Representante Permanente de Honduras

Embajador Sebastián Kraljevich Chadwick, Representante Permanente de Chile

Señor Bradley A. Freden, Representante Interino de los Estados Unidos

Ministro Raúl Mariano Martínez Villalba, Representante Interino del Paraguay

Primera Secretaria Judith-Anne Rolle, Representante Interina del Commonwealth de Dominica

Embajadora Samy Araya Rojas, Representante Interina de Costa Rica

Embajadora Wendy Acevedo Castillo, Representante Interina de El Salvador

Primera Secretaria Judith-Anne Rolle, Representante Interina del Commonwealth de Dominica

Embajadora Samy Araya Rojas, Representante Interina de Costa Rica

Embajadora Wendy Acevedo Castillo, Representante Interina de El Salvador

Consejero Francois Jubinville, Representante Interino del Canadá

Consejera Gillian Ingrid Joseph, Representante Alterna de Antigua y Barbuda

Consejero Pierre Michel Bonnet, Representante Alterno de Haití

Ministro Consejero Deon L. Williams, Representante Alterno de Jamaica

Primera Secretaria Shirnaya Valin Stephen, Representante Interina de Santa Lucía

Ministra Consejera Ana Luisa Gatica Palacios de Archulla, Representante Alterna de Guatemala

Ministra Consejera Cinnamon Elizabeth Bottaro, Representante Alterna de Belize

Embajadora Anabel Bueno Santana, Representante Alterna de la República Dominicana

También estuvo presente el Secretario General Adjunto de la Organización, Embajador Nestor Mendez, Secretario del Consejo Permanente.

La PRESIDENTA: Thank you. Good morning, esteemed colleagues.

Before proceeding to the adoption of the order of business, I wish to express our deepest condolences to the delegation of Brazil on the passing of the former judge and former president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Antonio Augusto Cançado Trindade. The OAS Permanent Council conveys its heartfelt condolences to his family and friends on such a painful loss.

Permit me also to express our condolences to the delegation of the Dominican Republic on the death of that country’s Environment Minister, Mr. Orlando Jorge Mera. Our sincerest condolences to the government, family and friends of the late minister. Our prayers are with you all.

On behalf of the Permanent Council, allow me to express this Council’s gratitude to President Biden and to the authorities of Los Angeles for the warm hospitality shown to the participants in the Ninth Summit of the Americas.

CONSIDERACIÓN DEL PROYECTO DE ORDEN DEL DÍA

On behalf of the Permanent Council, allow me to express this Council’s gratitude to President Biden and to the authorities of Los Angeles for the warm hospitality shown to the participants in the Ninth Summit of the Americas.

CONSIDERACIÓN DEL PROYECTO DE ORDEN DEL DÍA

La PRESIDENTA: In accordance with Article 43 of the Rules of Procedure, let us now proceed to the consideration of the order of business for this meeting, contained in document CP/OD-2379/22 rev.1.

[El proyecto de orden del día contiene los siguientes puntos:

1. Aprobación del orden del día (CP/OD-2379/22)

2. Informe anual de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud a la Asamblea General en su quincuagésimo segundo período ordinario de sesiones

• Presentación a cargo de la doctora Carissa Etienne, Directora de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud

1. Informe anual del Comité de Auditoría de la OEA al Consejo Permanente para los años terminados el 31 de diciembre de 2021 y 2020

• Presentación a cargo del señor Martin Rubenstein, Presidente del Comité de Auditoría de la OEA

1. Trabajos preparatorios para el quincuagésimo segundo período ordinario de sesiones de la Asamblea General[[1]](#footnote-1)/

• Instalación de la Subcomisión de Temario y Procedimientos de la Comisión Preparatoria de la Asamblea General, y elección de su Presidencia - Instalación de la Subcomisión de Asuntos Administrativos y Presupuestarios de la Comisión Preparatoria de la Asamblea General, y elección de su Presidencia

1. Aprobación de actas de sesiones del Consejo Permanente:

• CP/ACTA 2344 (sesión extraordinaria del 5 de octubre de 2021) - CP/ACTA 2346 (sesión ordinaria del 20 de octubre de 2021) - CP/ACTA 2350 (sesión ordinaria del 22 de noviembre de 2021) - CP/ACTA 2351 (sesión ordinaria del 29 de noviembre de 2021)

1. Otros asuntos.]

If there are no objections, it is approved.

Approved.

Informe Anual de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud

a la Asamblea General en su quincuagésimo segundo

período ordinario de sesiones

La PRESIDENTA: Our next item is the presentation of the annual report of the Pan American Health Organization to the fifty-second regular session of the General Assembly. This report was distributed as document CP/doc.5788/22. We recall that under Article 91.f of the Charter of the Organization, the Permanent Council must: “consider the reports of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development, the Inter-American Juridical Committee, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, of the General Secretariat, of specialized agencies and conferences, and of other bodies and agencies, and present to the General Assembly any observations and recommendations it deems necessary.”

On behalf of the Permanent Council, I extend a cordial welcome to the Director of the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. Carissa Etienne. Dr. Etienne, welcome back to the OAS Permanent Council.

You have the floor.

La DIRECTORA DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN PANAMERICANA DE LA SALUD: Thank you, Your Excellency, Honorable Ambassador Elizabeth Darius-Clarke, Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Saint Lucia to the Organization of American States. Ambassadors, Excellencies, Secretary General Luis Almagro and Assistant Secretary General Nestor Mendez, Secretaries, directors, and other professionals of the Organization of American States.

Let me wish you a very good morning. I am immensely pleased to share with you the 2021 annual report of the Pan American Health Organization, which reflects our technical cooperation achievements in the region of the Americas during this second year of the pandemic–a year which challenged us, but yet gave us reason for hope.

We recorded three times as many COVID infections and deaths in 2021 than we did in the previous year. Hospitals were stretched thin, vital medicines and supplies ran low, and our health systems were put to the test like never before. While this complex situation forced us to pause, reflect, and take stock, we have learned more about what it really takes to keep this virus under control.

This 2021 report will focus primarily on the Organization’s actions to support countries to respond and control the COVID-19 pandemic, while highlighting the adaptations and innovations of the region to ensure that, even as the response of COVID-19 intensified, progress continued to be made on most of our priorities, as outlined in the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025.

I wish to reiterate that we continue to value and seek your strong and steady leadership and your support to effectively control this pandemic and to advance the social and economic recovery processes of the region, with health at the center of our efforts.

One of the most instructive and valuable lessons that this pandemic has taught us is the crucial importance of solidarity and Pan Americanism in our region, values which have been shared over the past 120 years of PAHO’s existence. Effective collaboration across borders has enabled vaccines to be donated, virus variants to be quickly identified, and countries to adjust their responses based on the latest available evidence. When we have worked together, we have had breakthroughs and generated effective outcomes. However, when countries worked in isolation and when innovations and resources were not shared, we created spaces in which the pandemic was able to thrive. Now is the time to renew and strengthen our commitment to regional solidarity and Pan Americanism.

This pandemic has negatively impacted families and communities, as well as our societies and economies. COVID-19 has jeopardized the attainment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and some of the objectives of the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030.

In a region with the world’s highest inequity prior to the pandemic, inequities have deepened in areas ranging from access to health services, food and nutrition insecurities, and the availability of personal protective equipment and of COVID-19 vaccines.

In the Americas as of December 2021, COVID-19 had infected more than 104 million people and had resulted in approximately 2.4 million deaths. Thirty percent of all cases and 44 per cent of all deaths reported globally had occurred in this region, which accounts for only 13 per cent of the world’s total population.

In this region the risk of dying from COVID-19 has also been shown to be higher in ethnic minority groups, indigenous peoples, and those of lower socioeconomic status.

Over the first two months of 2022, countries throughout the Americas experienced the impact of a new, more infectious variant, Omicron. Countries reached new infection peaks, and emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths also surged. Between January through February 2022, the Americas had already reported more than 40 million COVID cases and more than 184,000 COVID-related deaths.

The good news is, however, that thanks to the protective power of vaccines, COVID deaths have been declining among vaccinated populations. This underscores the importance of expanding access to vaccines – including boosters, where available – to save lives.

During this reporting period, PAHO continued to assist its member states in responding to the pandemic. The Organizations technical cooperation for COVID-19 was delivered through a wide range of public health pillars.

We also supported medical surge capacities in 23 countries through the deployment of Emergency Medical Teams [EMTs] and the establishment of alternative medical care sites [AMCs] for COVID-19. In December 2021, 23 countries reported that at least 100 national EMTs were still deployed, and 129 AMCs were operational, providing a total of more than 6,800 inpatient beds and 1,000 critical care beds.

By December 2021, the Regional SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance Network, or COVIGEN as we call it, had included 30 countries and territories in the Americas. Via this network, PAHO strengthened countries with existing sequencing capacity by providing key reagents, standardized protocols, training, and human resources. Countries with no or limited genomic sequencing capabilities were also facilitated by way of access provided to eight regional reference sequencing laboratories.

Through the work of the network and PAHO member states, over 200,000 full genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 from Latin America and the Caribbean were uploaded to the global platform known as GISAID. This enabled the region to detect early on the rise of the Omicron variant of concern, and to adjust its public health and social measures appropriately. We are fully committed to expanding national capacity for genomic surveillance in 2022, and we are doing this as we speak to ensure preparation for future epidemics and pandemics.

During 2021, member states continued to receive ongoing updates on the COVID-19 pandemic via specially convened PAHO meetings of Ministers of Health, and through situational reports, epi-alerts, press releases, and other informational documents, as well as our well-known weekly Press Briefings. Weekly reports were also published with SARS-CoV-2 surveillance indicators, as well as those related to influenza and other respiratory viruses.

PAHO is supporting the use of epidemiological and surveillance tools for its member states to improve surveillance of COVID-19 and other potential emerging diseases. Notably, the use of the Epi Intelligence Tool from Open Sources (EIOS) has been expanded throughout the region to support member states in event-based surveillance built around artificial intelligence and machine learning. In addition, the Early Warning, Alert and Response System (EWARS) has been deployed in health emergencies as an adjunct to the national disease surveillance system.

PAHO’s logistics hub in Panama has supported the delivery of 747 tons of medical supplies to 36 affected countries and territories via 348 international and national shipments. A humanitarian dispatch occurred on average every 48 hours, underscoring the criticality of PAHO’s strategic reserve and emergency logistic mechanisms. These were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic and utilized at the same time for other concurrent emergencies, such as the volcanic eruption in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the earthquake in Haiti.

PAHO’s strategic stock is maintained with voluntary contributions, partner donations, and PAHO’s own resources. PAHO strengthened its technical cooperation and its partnership with Direct Relief, mobilizing some 38 shipments of medicines and medical supplies from Direct Relief to countries in need.

PAHO also enabled increased access to essential health supplies for COVID-19 through advocacy, coordination, and negotiation within key global mechanisms, such as the COVID-19 global supply consortium and the Access to COVID-19 Tools, known as the ACT Accelerator.

During 2021, the PAHO Strategic Supply Fund procured US$318 million in medicines and other public health supplies on behalf of 30 participating countries and entities, impacting over 41 million people and constituting a four-fold increase in the utilization of the Strategic Fund as compared to the same period in 2019.

In 2021 the Strategic Supply Fund helped to mitigate major disruptions to healthcare supply chains, through successfully procuring US$180 million worth of COVID-19 diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment, laboratory and medical equipment, and ICU-critical medicines for 18 countries, thus supporting approximately 24 million people in the region.

Additionally, PAHO provided technical guidance to 53 countries and territories in the reorganization of health services and in the expanding of capacities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. With PAHO’s support, countries were able to better monitor their health services, particularly at the primary level of care.

PAHO strengthened and adapted its Virtual Campus for Public Health for strategic technical cooperation, delivering more than 30 COVID-19-related courses to one million health workers throughout the Americas. The Campus averaged 40,000 new health workers every month in 2021.

Today, more than 1.3 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the Americas. And although the rollout of these vaccines has not been as rapid as we would have liked, nor as evenly distributed, today 65 percent of people across Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

This success has been possible thanks to the hard-fought efforts of our countries, together with the generous support of donors like the United States of America, Spain and Canada, which helped our region to secure vaccine doses when the supply was limited.

While the region today has some of the highest rates of COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the world, serious gaps remain, and some countries are being left behind. For example, in the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands has protected more than 90 per cent of its population with COVID vaccines, while less than 1 per cent of people in Haiti have been immunized. And as we strive to reach the WHO goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of the population in each country by July 2022, 13 countries have yet to achieve 40 per cent coverage, and 10 of these countries are in the Caribbean.

More than one in four people across the Americas have yet to receive a single dose of vaccine, and if we focus on lowand middle-income countries, more than half of these populations have yet to receive a single COVID-19 vaccine.

To bring this virus under control, our region must address the vaccine inequity in practical and sustainable ways and the very serious challenge of vaccine hesitancy, even when there is ready access to vaccines.

Your Excellencies, there is no magic bullet against COVID-19, and that is why I would like to emphasize that we must embrace sound public health measures, including social distancing, testing, and vaccination. Decisions and actions must be grounded in evidence. We urge countries to heed the advice of PAHO, WHO, scientists, and regulators whose collective expertise inform and guide us.

As we have seen with COVID vaccines, procurement and supply chains can be major barriers to access. To alleviate some of these barriers, PAHO has been collaborating with member states and public and private institutions to expand the regional production capacity for vaccines, medicines, and other health technologies, and to advocate for the creation of markets that would be sustainable to reduce the dependence on imported products.

In August 2021, PAHO launched the Regional Platform to Advance the Manufacturing of COVID-19 Vaccines and other Health Technologies in the Americas, with two projects being selected to begin the process for mRNA technology, and two countries were selected as quality assurance hubs for strategic medical supplies.

PAHO is prepared to support countries and other partners to find alternative solutions to enable access to future COVID therapeutics and other health technologies. This region has the technical expertise, manufacturing capacity, the regulatory infrastructure, and an effective pooled procurement mechanism via our Strategic and Revolving Funds that, if effectively leveraged, will help to accelerate access to these much-needed technologies.

On another note, the mental health and wellbeing of populations have also been severely impacted by the pandemic, as evidenced by the high reported rates of stress, depression, and anxiety. Concomitantly, the pandemic resulted in significant disruptions to mental health services, and it has now been more clearly appreciated that these essential services must be rapidly expanded in order to adequately satisfy the escalating needs and demands. Support for the development and implementation of mental health policies, plans and laws, together with capacity building have been strengthened throughout the region. Thirty-four countries and territories now have a mental health policy or plan that was approved by their respective governments, with an emphasis on community-based mental health care.

Last year, PAHO proposed a new policy on mental health for adoption by member states in 2022, and last month, I launched a Commission on Mental Health comprised of regional leaders and experts.

Due to the increasing suicide rates in the region, suicide prevention now constitutes an important focus of our work. A new Regional Suicide Report was published in 2021, and five countries [Argentina, Costa Rica, Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago] are implementing suicide prevention activities with the technical guidance of PAHO, including the conduct of situational assessments and stronger surveillance implementation.

In addition to the higher levels of pandemic-associated stress and anxiety in the population at large, increased alcohol consumption was also observed, together with much misinformation about alcohol, resulting in hundreds of deaths due to the consumption of adulterated alcohol.

Pahola is the new PAHO digital health worker dedicated to alcohol-related topics. She was launched in November 2021, along with a communications campaign that achieved about 115 million hits across all media during a ten-week period. Pahola is based on artificial intelligence and can autonomously interact with users, empathetically, anonymously, answering questions and providing feedback on a variety of alcohol-related topics, from any device. And she can do this 24 hours a day, to an unlimited number of users. This is another way that we are engaging and facilitating a connection with our users.

The pandemic has also exacerbated the difficulties faced by persons with substance-use disorders, who, in turn, face higher risks of poor outcomes related to COVD-19 infection. PAHO will provide technical support to Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Jamaica, and Panama to bolster national capacities to better respond to substance-use related problems. PAHO’s work in this area will also provide strategic opportunities for enhanced collaboration with other relevant partners, such as the OAS Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD).

Improving the response to sexual violence, including post-rape care, was critical in the context of COVID-19, given increased demands from victims for support. The Organization has rolled out a series of capacity-building workshops on strengthening the health system response to sexual violence against women and girls, with the active participation of health policymakers and health managers from seven priority countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru, and Paraguay.

During all of this time, PAHO has maintained its focus on health throughout the life course, to address the increased vulnerabilities of women, mothers, children, adolescents and older persons during the pandemic, using a variety of interventions in schools, workplaces, and urban settings to promote health and safety.

And as part of these efforts, the Organization enhanced COVID-19 surveillance among pregnant women and newborns, and conducted a review of scientific information on children and the pandemic related to the re-opening of schools, the use of masks and other public health and social measures as well as the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic.

This work has generated recommendations for concrete actions to mitigate the indirect effects of the pandemic on health, learning, and wellbeing, and to ensure support for children, their families, and school staff.

PAHO, together with the OAS, has continued to introduce school-based activities centered around the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, in line with the work plan of the Inter-American Committee on Education 2019-2022. This work also aligns with our Plan of Action for the Prevention of Obesity in Children and Adolescents, and the monitoring and evaluation of school environments that are conducive to the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

We now have an innovative approach for continuing NCD surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic through the application of mobile phone surveys. Surveys were implemented in five countries– Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Bolivia, Honduras, and Paraguay– and the data that were generated on how people with NCDs have been affected by COVID-19 will inform future policies and actions.

The strategic application of taxes to support health priorities continues to be part of the comprehensive plan to reduce the risk factors associated with non-communicable diseases in the region. PAHO continues to work collaboratively with agencies in the inter-American system on these approaches.

In collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), PAHO worked with Ministries of Health in twelve countries from Latin America and ten countries from the Caribbean to assess and build capacity to improve the screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers. The initiative is part of a global Cancer Screening in Five Continents [CanScreen5] projects to improve cancer screening programs.

PAHO supported Chile, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Paraguay to develop preventive cervical cancer strategies and to improve screening as part of the Global Elimination Strategy. In collaboration with strategic partners, PAHO created a virtual monthly tele-mentoring program on cervical cancer elimination with countries in Latin America.

PAHO is providing technical assistance to 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that have committed to implement the CureAll Framework to improve childhood cancers. Eight of these countries­­– Peru, Panama, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Nicaragua– have developed national childhood cancer plans, and have defined priorities to strengthen health services and quality of care for children with cancer.

Twenty-one countries also are benefitting from PAHO’s technical cooperation through the HEARTS in the Americas Initiative, for the improved management of hypertension in a primary care setting. Five of those countries joined during 2021. There are now more than 1,000 primary care centers where the HEARTS technical package is being implemented, including 306 new health centers in 2021.

Updated technical tools have been developed and deployed, including the New Hypertension Clinical Pathway and the PAHO Cardiovascular Disease Risk Calculator. These are free applications that help estimate the possible ten-year risk of myocardial infarction, stroke or cardiovascular death. Also developed has been a new Regulatory Framework for Blood Pressure Devices to help improve the use of validated blood pressure devices in clinics.

National assessments of rehabilitation and assistive technology services have taken place in Bolivia, Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. These assessments will underpin the development of new plans and policies for rehabilitation and assistive technologies in 2022, and will integrate learning on how the COVID pandemic has impacted rehabilitation services.

PAHO continues to pursue its ambitious communicable disease elimination agenda, and in 2021 El Salvador became the first country in Central America to be certified by PAHO/WHO to be free of malaria. This certification represents the culmination of more than 50 years of unwavering commitment and dedicated work by El Salvador to eliminate this disease.

In 2021, Dominica joined the seven other Caribbean countries validated by PAHO/WHO for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. Achieving such a milestone required the adoption of harmoniz