The Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) is a group of individual experts convened by PAHO to provide technical, scientific, and/or strategic advice to PAHO. According to its advisory function, the SAG VPD advises and recommends –as opposed to approve or decide–. The SAG VPD helps to assess or to analyze, to critically appraise and evaluate a situation, but ultimately, it will provide the Director of PAHO with advice or recommendations that PAHO, in turn, may decide to follow or not to follow.
The SAG VPD is established by the Director of PAHO and composed of external experts acting in their personal capacities and not representing any external entity, authority, or government. The SAG VPD might be called upon to provide specific and time-limited advice or broad and ongoing advice on strategic issues.