Under a new agreement with the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), PAHO will provide support in health and knowledge management for one of the strategic lines of action in the ACTO Strategic Cooperation Agenda.

The agreement was signed today by PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses and Amb. Alejandro Gordillo, Secretary General of ACTO during PAHO/s 51st Directing Council meeting.

Under the agreement, PAHO will cooperate with ACTO member countries in strengthening their health services, will help develop initiatives and programs, and will help mobilize resources for project execution. Specific areas of technical cooperation will include epidemiological surveillance, environmental health, health systems development, health technologies, knowledge management, telemedicine and telehealth, human resources policy and development, capacity-building for indigenous and community health workers, and research.

PAHO will also support the creation of a regional information system that includes ethnicity as a variable to prioritize interventions for the Amazonian peoples.

Dr. Roses noted that PAHO has provided technical cooperation in the Amazon Region since before the creation of OTCA, including in the late 1980s in developing a model of "floating health care" for river basin communities.

Amb. Gordillo said the new agreement with PAHO was part of a "relaunching" of ACTO that was formalized last year with the approval by its member countries of the ACTO Strategic Cooperation Agenda.