43rd Session of the Advisory Committee on Health Research (ACHR) of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Report to the Director, 2009

Abstract

[Introduction] To commemorate the first 50 years of the Advisory Committees on Health Research, the Pan American Sanitary Bureau and the World Health Organization organized a join session of the Advisory Committee on Health Research (ACHR) of the World Health Organization (WHO; 52nd session) and the ACHR of the Pan American Health Organization, hereafter referred to as CAIS, its Spanish acronym (PAHO/AMRO; 43rd meeting). This meeting was the first for these Committees following the approval of PAHO/AMRO’s Research for Health Policy by the Governing Bodies – the first regional policy aligned with the Research Strategy the WHO’s 124th Executive Board submitted to the 63rd World Health Assembly. Hence, this meeting constituted an excellent opportunity to discuss issues relevant to the concordance between these documents, and the strategies and action plans needed to progress from policy to specific outputs. The meeting also offered an opportunity to examine relationships and interactions between global, regional and national developments. Considering the structure of this meeting, this final report summarizes the discussions according to the day and WHO Strategy objective or topic being addressed.