The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) works in the countries of the Region through technical cooperation programs and projects that formalize and operationalize the dissemination of information, sharing of experiences, and guarantee the transparency and control of the resource management and presentation of results reports. These Terms are also aligned with its 2020-2025 Strategic Plan and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Cooperation Terms (TC) that operationalize technical cooperation are among the instruments most used by the Organization to consolidate this practice, in addition to Agreements and Contracts aligned with organizational policies and processes.
The technical cooperation of the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (BIREME/PAHO/WHO) is characterized by its regional action in favor of equitable access to information, for the development and improvement of products and services that seek to improve the quality of production, access, and publication of information and scientific and technical evidence in health for all countries in the Region.
BIREME works, in coordination with the PAHO/WHO Representations in the countries and counterparts, developing projects to achieve health results at the organizational, national and international levels, through TCs or specific agreements with the corresponding counterparts. In the case of Brazil, the main counterpart is the Ministry of Health, which is a permanent member of BIREME’s Governance Committees.
In the 2020-2021 biennium, BIREME/PAHO/WHO cooperated with more than ten Cooperation Terms established between PAHO/WHO Brazil and the Ministry of Health, supporting the information and knowledge management component, considering its performance and experience in the area working with more than two thousand national cooperating institutions in the countries of the Region, in the operation and maintenance of the Virtual Health Library (VHL) model and its main sources of information, the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS), and the Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences Index (LILACS), among other products and services in information management and scientific communication in health.
Below are the TCs with which BIREME contributes and a brief description:
The expected results in the context of the TCs are monitored by BIREME in coordination with the national counterparts, also through biweekly project management support meetings coordinated by the Director of the Center, the Administrative Management, and managers of the technical areas, with the participation of the responsible technical collaborators.
BIREME’s participation in the development and implementation of the Cooperation Terms with PAHO Brazil strengthens the Center’s technical cooperation in meeting the health information priorities in Brazil and in the Region, strengthening institutional relations in favor of equitable access to technical and scientific information in health, contributing to the implementation of its mission.