The health panorama of the Americas today is a tapestry of complexities, contrasts, and possibilities. Globalization and advances in science and technology have created unparalleled opportunities for people to enjoy longer, healthier, and more productive lives, but not everyone is benefiting equally from these forces. Economic expansion, slower population growth, and more effective social policies have reduced poverty rates, yet the Region of the Americas retains the unenviable distinction of being the most unequal in the world. Urbanization has moved people closer to health services but has also led to the adoption of unhealthy lifestyles and weaker social ties. Public health action has helped raise life expectancy and other key indicators at the aggregate level, but glaring health gaps and disparities persist.

Understanding these contextual trends and conditions is fundamental to addressing the complex health challenges facing the Americas today. But it is only the start. Effective public health action must be grounded in a clear understanding of the multiple forces that affect health, but it must also be guided by a larger vision of what is possible and aimed at ambitious, but achievable, goals. It must be supported with appropriately allocated resources, executed through proven interventions, and subject to evaluation and revision. Through strategic planning, all these elements come together and undergird the work of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PASB) and the Member States of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). In 2007�2008, PAHO and the PASB focused special efforts on strategic planning to advance public health.