Advancing the People’s Health. Annual Report of the Director, 2000 (Official Document;298)

Abstract

[Preface]. This is the year of our Centennial. Much has been written of this institutional odyssey of 100 years. The countries have chronicled experiences in health as they bear witness to, and celebrate, the history of the Organization. Indeed, our work together has borne rich fruit: sustained progress in health throughout the Americas. Major contributors to that progress have been an appreciation of the value of health at the highest political levels in all the member countries and the application of appropriate technologies to secure it. Above all, the dedication of countless hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of health workers in the countries has made the difference. I never tire of saluting them as heroes of health in the Americas. This report will offer some measure of retrospection on the work of the Bureau in recent years. It will attempt to do so expressing neither the triumphalism derived of accomplishment nor defensiveness regarding things left undone. It will describe achievements that have resulted from the partnership between the Bureau and the countries of the Americas. It will attempt to project a representative picture of the many facets of an institution committed to responding to the various mandates and aspirations of those who have guided it over a century. And it will demonstrate the results of the emphasis I have given to information from the beginning of my administration.