Health Systems in the Latin America and Caribbean

Deadline: August 14, 2009
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Diplomacy program is being constructed with reference to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework for strengthening health systems, which suggests six main building blocks: service delivery; health workforce; health information; medical products, vaccines and technologies; health financing; and leadership and governance (stewardship).1 The HHS, Office of Global Health Affairs (OGHA) announces that an estimated two million nine hundred twenty thousand U.S. dollars ($2,920,000) in fiscal year 2009 funds are available for a for a one-year competitive bidding cooperative agreement. The overarching goal of the cooperative agreement is to strengthen the Health Systems in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region by supporting the development of a local health workforce that is responsive, fair and efficient to achieve the best health outcomes possible, given available resources and circumstances. The program will provide training in the LAC region and foster health care professionals’ commitment to sustained service in underserved communities in their home countries. The program will build on the lessons learned from the multiple HHS global health missions. The program will also incorporate intelligence from the LAC country reports of the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization with respect to needs and capacity.