The first meeting of the Program to Strengthen Cooperation for Health Development in the America is taking place, this week, in the Palace Itaboray, in Petrópolis, Brazil. The Department of External Relations, Partnerships, and Mobilization of Resources of the Pan American Health Organization/Organization World Health (PAHO/WHO), with the support of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), is developing a program to strengthen the capacities of the International Relations Offices (ORIS) in the Ministries of Health of the Region, as well as leading national actors of international health cooperation, based upon the recently approved Policy on Cooperation for Health Development during the PAHO/WHO's 52 Directing Council, in September 2013.

During this week, participants will formulate proposals to improve the actions of the Offices of International Relations in Health (ORIS) in the Region for the optimization of health cooperation at the national, subregional and global level; and to promote and strengthen the dialogue and the ORIS network. Furthermore, participants will analyze the current situation to facilitate the development of strategies for the strengthening of the region's health cooperation institutions.

The meeting's agenda include the following competencies: health diplomacy and cooperation, challenges of global health, governance of global and regional health, development and health, external health cooperation policies among the countries in the region, health in the sub-regional and regional integration mechanisms, among others.

Twenty seven countries are participating at the meeting, including Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent & and the Grenadines, Haiti, Honduras, Costa Rica, the United States, Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Dominica, El Salvador, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The meeting will conclude on 27 November 2015.