The 42nd Directing Council, having considered document CD42/15 on Essential Public Health Functions; taking into account that the Pan American Health Organization has implemented the Public Health in the Americas initiative, aimed at the definition and measurement of the essential public health functions as the bases for improving public health practice and strengthening the steering role of the health authority at all levels of the State; considering the need for health sector reforms to pay greater attention to public health and to increase the social and institutional responsibility of the State in this regard; and taking note of the recommendation of the 126th Session of the Executive Committee,

Resolves:

1. To urge the Member States to:

• Participate in a regional exercise to measure performance with regard to the Essential Public Health Functions to permit an analysis of the state of public health in the Americas, sponsored by PAHO;
• Use performance measurement with regard to the essential public health functions to improve public health practice, develop the necessary infrastructure for this purpose, and strengthen the steering role of the health authority at all levels of the State.
  

2. To request the Director to:

• Disseminate widely in the countries of the Region the conceptual and methodological documentation on the definition and measurement of the Essential Public Health Functions;
• Carry out, in close coordination with the national authorities of each country, an exercise in performance measurement with respect to the Essential Public Health Functions, using the methodology referred to in Document CD42/15;
• Conduct a regional analysis of the state of public health in the Americas, based on a performance measurement exercise targeting the essential public health functions in each country;
  Promote the reorientation of public health education in the Region in line with the development of the Essential Public Health Functions;
• Incorporate the line of work on the Essential Public Health Functions into cooperation activities linked with sectoral reform and the strengthening of the steering role of the health authority.