Washington, D.C., 29 September 2016 (PAHO/WHO) - Ministers of health from throughout the Americas have endorsed a series of actions aimed at mitigating the health impact of disasters by improving the capacity of countries' health sectors to respond to such events and to recover from their effects quickly and effectively. The Plan of Action for Disaster Risk Reduction 2016-2021 was adopted by the 55th Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
"Health facilities and health personnel provide life-saving care after disasters, but they themselves may be affected by adverse events," said Ciro Ugarte, director of PAHO's Health Emergencies Department. "This new plan builds on our work with PAHO member countries to reduce risks in the health sector and to strengthen their capacity to ensure full operation of the health system and services in times of emergencies and disasters."
The new plan to reduce disaster risks in the health sector builds on PAHO's Safe Hospitals initiative, which has already helped make hospitals throughout the region safer in disasters. It also expands PAHO's newer Smart Hospitals initiative, which seeks additionally to reduce the carbon footprint of hospitals and other health facilities.
40 years of technical cooperation in disasters
The new plan draws on the experience of PAHO's technical cooperation program in disaster preparedness and response, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The program's founding director, Claude de Ville de Goyet, told delegates to the 55th Directing Council that the program had helped countries throughout the Americas to build their own national capacity to reduce risks and respond to emergencies. He pointed to such pioneering PAHO disaster initiatives such Safe and Smart Hospitals, Logistics Support System/Humanitarian Supply Management System (LSS/SUMA), and Emergency Medical Teams (EMT), saying, "Many of these initiatives have been adopted at the global level."
The new plan builds on this past work, particularly in the areas of coordinating international humanitarian assistance and emergency medical teams. The plan is based on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, approved by 185 countries at the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015 and on priorities identified by regional health disaster coordinators representing 29 countries and territories of the Americas.
The plan's four strategic lines of action are: 1) recognizing disaster risk in the health sector, 2) improving governance of disaster risk management in the health sector, 3) making hospitals both safe and "smart" and 4) building health sector capacity for emergency and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
The Region of the Americas is the second-most affected by disasters after Asia. About a quarter (22.9%) of all disasters that occurred in the world between 2006 and 2015 took place in the Americas, resulting in 254,508 deaths and damages of some US$436 billion. The most common events were water- and weather-related, causing 5.6% of disaster deaths in this period but more than 73% of disaster damages.
"Safe" and "smart"
Under the plan, countries commit to including both "safe" and "smart" criteria in the planning, design, construction, and operation of health facilities and services. The "safe" criteria are aimed at making health facilities and services able to withstand the impact of disasters and to continue functioning. The "smart" criteria seek additionally to reduce the health sector's contributions to climate change through measures that reduce health facilities' and services' carbon footprints.
To implement the plan, countries are urged to undertake formal assessments of the health sector's vulnerabilities to disasters; to develop plans and procedures for emergency and disaster response and early recovery, and to test their effectiveness; to assign full-time staff to be responsible for disaster risk reduction in the health sector; and to establish coordination mechanisms in the health sector to be responsible for implementation and monitoring of disaster risk management for health.
An assessment of PAHO's 2010-2015 Plan of Action on Safe Hospitals showed that 25 countries and territories (75%) in the Americas have national Safe Hospitals programs, 28 countries (80%) have included Safe Hospitals concepts in their new health investment projects, and 34 countries (97%) are improving the safety of existing health facilities through retrofitting and measures to ensure their continued functioning in case of disaster.
In addition, 32 countries and four territories in the Americas have evaluation teams using PAHO's Hospital Safety Index to assess the vulnerability of health facilities and to identify priority areas of need. Regionwide, more than 11,500 people have been trained as Safe Hospital evaluators.
The Directing Council of PAHO brings the Ministers of Health and high-level delegates of the PAHO/WHO member countries together in Washington, D.C. to discuss and analyze health policies, set priorities for PAHO's technical cooperation programs, and foster collaboration on public health at the regional level.
