The XI Session of the Advisory Committee (AC) of the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME/PAHO/WHO), which was held virtually on February 8, 2023, had the objective of reporting to the members of the Committee on the progress of the management and technical cooperation program of the Center.
The meeting was attended by appointed members from Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, in addition to PAHO/WHO, which is also one of the Committee’s permanent members, considering:
Ana Estela Haddad, Ministry of Health’s Digital Health Secretariat, Brasil;
Valentina Sandoval, Dr. Bogoslav Juricic Turina Library Manager, Chile;
Jaime Castellanos, Advisor to the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Colombia;
Adriana Salazar González, Head of the International Relations Unit of the Ministry of Health, Costa Rica;
Wendy Saenz Alivat, Technical Regulations of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, Guatemala; and
Sebastián Garcia Saisó, Director of the PAHO/WHO Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health.
João Paulo Souza, Director of BIREME, and ex-officio secretary of the Committee, opened the session, thanking the members for their presence and recognizing its relevant function, which consists in making recommendations to the Director of the Organization on the programmatic, managerial, and technical functions of the Center, defined in its Statute. Next, he presented a summary of the results of the actions of technical cooperation and management of BIREME for 2022, considering the recommendations of the Governance Committees[1] sessions of the previous year.
Here are the main consensus recommendations:
- Incorporate the proposed format changes to the BIREME Statute;
- Review the other language versions of the BIREME Statute to ensure full consistency among them;
- Move forward with the implementation of the BIREME Statute, especially the formalization of its Headquarters Agreement in Brazil, in order to enable the annual financial contributions through the Ministry of Health;
- Continue strengthening the search for financing and sustainability of BIREME with the support of PAHO/WHO and to expand with the exploration of alternative sources;
- Increase the spaces for promotion of information products and services developed by BIREME, within the countries and internally in PAHO/WHO, identifying specific actions to disseminate them effectively;
- Strengthen links with PAHO/WHO country offices and national counterparts, including academia, to support the identification of funding sources and the development of technical cooperation projects;
- Develop the BIREME Cooperation Strategy in line with the PAHO/WHO Strategic Plan and the objectives and functions of BIREME;
- Develop the BIREME Work Plan for 2024-25 (BWP 2024-2025) aligned with the new BIREME Cooperation Strategy (2023-2025); and
- Include BIREME in the PAHO/WHO Country Cooperation Strategies to promote the dissemination of evidence products and services in health sciences developed by the Center.
All those present were unanimous in recognizing the results achieved by BIREME/PAHO/WHO by 2022 and reinforced their commitment to support the development and strengthening of the Center’s institutional and technical cooperation program together with local institutions in their countries.
[1] The Portal of the Governance Committees of BIREME/PAHO/WHO contains information and documents of all previous sessions of the Advisory and Scientific Committees. Available at: https://comitesgobernanza.bireme.org/en
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