COVID-19 Response in Latin America.

Effective management of a pandemic due to a respiratory virus requires public health capacity for a coordinated response for mandatory restrictions, large-scale testing to identify infected individuals, capacity to isolate infected cases and track and test contacts, and health services for those infected who require hospitalization. Because of contextual and socioeconomic factors, it has been hard for Latin America to confront this epidemic. In this article, we discuss the context and the initial responses of eight selected Latin American countries, including similarities and differences in public health, economic, and fiscal measures, and provide reflections on what worked and what did not work and what to expect moving forward.

Responding to the global human resources crisis.

The global community is in the midst of a growing response to health crises in developing countries, which is focused on mobilising financial resources and increasing access to essential medicines. However, the response has yet to tackle the most important aspect of health-care systems--the people that make them work. Human resources for health--the personnel that deliver public-health, clinical, and environmental services--are in disarray and decline in much of the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The reasons behind this disorder are complex. For decades, efforts have focused on building training institutions. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that issues of supply, demand, and mobility (transnational, regional, and local) are central to the human-resource problem. Without substantial improvements in workforces, newly mobilised funds and commodities will not deliver on their promise. The global community needs to engage in four core strategies: raise the profile of the issue of human resources; improve the conceptual base and statistical evidence available to decision makers; collect, share, and learn from country experiences; and begin to formulate and enact policies at the country level that affect all aspects of the crisis.

Human resources for health: overcoming the crisis.

In this analysis of the global workforce, the Joint Learning Initiative-a consortium of more than 100 health leaders-proposes that mobilisation and strengthening of human resources for health, neglected yet critical, is central to combating health crises in some of the world's poorest countries and for building sustainable health systems in all countries. Nearly all countries are challenged by worker shortage, skill mix imbalance, maldistribution, negative work environment, and weak knowledge base. Especially in the poorest countries, the workforce is under assault by HIV/AIDS, out-migration, and inadequate investment. Effective country strategies should be backed by international reinforcement. Ultimately, the crisis in human resources is a shared problem requiring shared responsibility for cooperative action. Alliances for action are recommended to strengthen the performance of all existing actors while expanding space and energy for fresh actors.

Salud Global en las instituciones académicas latinoamericanas: hacia un desarrollo e identidad propia / Global Health in Latin-American academic institutions: towards a distinctive development and identity

Salud Global es un campo relativamente nuevo en las instituciones académicas de América Latina y su expansión ha sido lenta en comparación con el explosivo desarrollo que esta disciplina ha experimentado en países de Europa y Norteamérica. Este artículo presenta una visión general de los principales programas de docencia e investigación en Salud Global en universidades e institutos de la Región que han surgido durante los últimos 10 años. Asimismo, se describe la creación de ALASAG, una red de instituciones académicas con programas en Salud Global, a través de la cual se está haciendo sentir la voz de Latinoamérica en los foros mundiales de Salud Global. Los autores plantean que el quehacer de las instituciones académicas debe, necesariamente, inscribirse dentro de una conceptualización e identidad regional propia y distintiva. La perspectiva Latinoamericana de la Salud Global debe partir de una posición crítica frente al fenómeno de globalización económica capitalista manejado desde la ideología neoliberal. Desde dicha perspectiva se propone un listado de aéreas prioritarias en docencia, investigación y abogacía en Salud Global para la Región, entre otras: la equidad en el acceso a la salud; la globalización económica en América Latina y sus efectos en la equidad en salud; y la liberación y protección del comercio internacional en contraposición con la protección de la salud humana y el medio ambiente...

Global Health is a relatively recent development in Latin American academic institutions. Its expansion among such institutions has been slow in comparison with its explosive development in European and North American countries. This article presents an overview of the main Global Health teaching and research programs that have emerged over the past decade at universities and institutes of the Region. Likewise, it describes the creation of ALASAG, a network of academic institutions interested in Global Health, through which the voice of Latin America is being heard in world Global Health fora. The authors propose that the Global Health work at Latin American academic institutions should be based on a distinctive, Region-based, conceptual vision and identity of Global Health. Such Latin American vision must necessarily involve a critical stance on the capitalist economic globalization phenomenon inspired by the neoliberal ideology. From this critical stance, the authors propose a number of priority areas for Global Health teaching, research and advocacy for Latin America academic institutions including, among others, equitable access to health, economic globalization and its effect on health equity, and international trade liberalization and protection and its impact on the environment and human health...

Desarrollo de la acción y el compromiso intersectorial / Action development and intersectorial commitment

Este documento está concebido como herramienta para las IESP, a fin de estimularles el pensamiento, la discusión y la acción sobre su función en el desarrollo de la acción intersectorial. Resume las bases para la acción intersectorial. Aporta una síntesis de lo que es la acción intersectorial (la definición); lo que incluye (los componentes esenciales) y lo que implica (las condiciones para el éxito), Sugiere las formas como las IESP pueden fomentar y apoyar la acción intersectorial. Señala que los retos para estas instituciones son tanto teóricas como prácticas. Incluye, mediante la investigación, el desarrollo de una base de conocimiento para mejorar la acción y el compromiso intersectorial. También, incluye la transferencia y utilización de este conocimiento mediante la educación, el adiestramiento, la actividad comunitaria directa y la cooperación técnica