How Do We in the Region Prepare for the Next Pandemic?

The COVID-19 crisis revealed structural weaknesses in the region’s capacity to prevent and respond to emergencies. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was the most affected by the health emergency worldwide. With only 8.2% of the population, it accounted for 25.5% of the world’s total COVID-19 deaths. Additionally, the economic contraction of 6.7% of GDP in 2020 made it evident how health emergencies could constitute a systemic macroeconomic risk. An estimated 39 million jobs were lost and more than 20 million people fell into poverty.

In order to capitalize on lessons learned, in 2022 on the occasion of the ninth Summit of the Americas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the launch of the Economic and Health Dialogue of the Americas (EHA).

What Is the Economic and Health Dialogue of the Americas, and How Does It Help Us Prepare for Pandemics and Emergencies?

The EHA has three objectives:

1) share best practices, facilitate coordination, and increase political will to strengthen pandemic preparedness and build stronger health systems and more resilient economies;

2) to promote dialogue on issues affecting health and the economy, strengthening the relationship between the Ministries of Health, Social Development and Economy and Finance to achieve effective solutions; and

3) promote regional discussions and commitments, creating strategic synergies with other initiatives.

This is a multilateral initiative driven by the countries and led by the U.S. Department of State and the Dominican Republic as 2024-2025 co-chairs, with the support of an Executive Technical Group (ETWG), led by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and supported by the technical teams of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Organization of American States (OAS), which have made available their knowledge and resources to provide technical assistance and support in the development of the initiative’s knowledge products.  

This dialogue is structured around four working groups. The first, co-led by Paraguay and Uruguay, discusses smart health spending with the objective of maximizing the impact of resources used and increasing access through the application of best budgeting practices and new financing practices in emergencies (for more information on the IDB’s recent work on smart spending).

The second, on prioritizing health sector transformation, explores how to use the Essential Public Health Functions of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to achieve structural transformations of health systems and is led by the Bahamas.

The third, co-led by Brazil and Chile, is the Adaptive Social Protection in Emergencies group, which aims to assess the capacity of countries to comprehensively protect their populations in the face of crises or emergencies such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or the effects of climate change (for more information click here).

The fourth group, led by Argentina and Peru, works on the Fundamentals for strengthening supply chains and explores complementarities between the public/private sector, as well as mechanisms to improve regional coordination on this issue.

Two years after its launch, EHA has the participation of more than 20 countries in the region and involves the Ministries of Health, Finance and Social Development, Social Registry Units, Ministries of Commerce and drug regulatory agencies, which not only enriches exchanges between countries, but also between sectors.

Consensus Reached and Next Steps

Interactions among LAC countries have combined regular virtual meetings with a series of high-level face-to-face meetings to reaffirm the commitment of the participating countries.

The most recent high-level meeting was a working session attended by ministers and vice-ministers from 17 countries in the region. Several consensuses were reached, among them:

• The countries reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening health systems and economic resilience in the face of emergencies in the region. PAHO made available a tool to support countries in identifying possible solutions to improve health budget management in order to transform available financial resources into the effective delivery of health services that best meet the needs of the population. Peru and Paraguay are the first countries that have committed to the application of this tool, for which PAHO will provide support.

• A regional study was approved with information on the application of the Essential Public Health Functions in 14 countries of the region to produce a policy document that establishes shared priorities and identifies institutional capacity gaps in order to prioritize future investments, maintaining a subregional approach for the Caribbean countries.
  
• Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Chile committed to apply the IDB’s Social Protection Systems Maturity Assessment Tool (MAT) to measure capacity and identify areas of investment in social protection systems to be scaled up temporarily and specifically in times of emergencies. The objective for 2024-2025 will be to explore possible regional arrangements to coordinate increased preparedness and response capacity for future health crises, including those related to climate change.
  
• The countries announced their commitment to conduct an analysis of the practices for recognizing the decisions of other regulatory agencies (regulatory reliance) in the area of medicines and to develop a document on the most recent advances in this area with the participation of the region’s regulatory agencies. In this way, IICA promoted the strengthening of supply chains for strategic health inputs.

The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic showed us the importance of coordinating efforts to better anticipate and protect ourselves from the next virus or weather phenomenon that threatens our communities. It also taught us that health is a macroeconomic risk and that it is crucial that health and finance ministers work together to take care of the health of populations and economies.

The IDB will continue to support this effort, offering technical assistance and integrating the results of these exercises into the work plan of each country in the region.