The Essential Public Health Functions (EPHF) are the fundamental set of actions that should be performed in order to achieve public health’s central objective: improving the health of populations.

The Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), through the Public Health in the Americas Initiative, defined the eleven Essential Public Health Functions necessary to strengthen public health practice, and developed a methodology that allows countries to evaluate their public health capacity.

Through this methodology, Health Ministries and/or Secretariats are able to identify the critical actions needed to improve the public health infrastructure, management mechanisms, and resources necessary for the National Health Authority (NHA) to optimally perform its duties.