PAHO/WHO Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC)

PAHO/WHO Secretariat has provided for Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC), as a singular instrument for solidarity, horizontal cooperation, understanding, and strengthening of the institutional capacity of the countries to meet their health needs.

Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC) is understood as the execution and management of activities and development projects among countries, which involves the sharing of experiences and technical capacities as well as the countries’ own resources, with external assistance and financial support when necessary.

Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC) is essentially a process whereby two or more countries work together to develop individual or collective capacity through cooperative exchanges of knowledge, skills, resources, and technologies. Ideally, TCC activities should be initiated, organized, and managed by the countries themselves, under the direction of the respective governments and with the participation of public and private institutions and organizations (UNDP 1998).

The mission of Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC) is to contribute to capacity building in one or more countries, strengthen relations between them, increase the exchange, generation, dissemination, and use of scientific and technical knowledge, in addition to training the countries’ human resources and strengthening their institutions.

Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC) in health, as a strategy for accelerating health development through the countries’ capacity and potential, lie in the concept of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC).

Among the agencies of the United Nations system, PAHO/WHO stands out for having created a specific budget allotment for TCC as a concrete way of implementing the strategy outlined in 1978 and endorsed in diverse forums.

The Mission of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is: "to lead strategic collaborative efforts among the Member States and other partners to promote equity in health, to combat disease, and to improve the quality of, and lengthen, the lives of the peoples of the Americas"¹. Thus, Technical Cooperation among Countries (TCC)² is one of the Organization's main instruments for accomplishing its mission.

For PAHO/WHO, TCC is privileged cooperation modality which has to be more intensely used in order to face new challenges and make progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The Management Strategy for the work of the Bureau instituted by the Director of PAHO/WHO in 2003 establishes five strategic objectives, among them: "Respond better to country needs" and Foster innovative modalities of Technical Cooperation", which serve as the framework for the renewed commitment of the Organization to TCC.

This implies "working in close connection with all the political, technical and social networks, and mobilizing the resources that are or may become available." Thus, PAHO/WHO will be in position to "continue serving Member States, setting froth the goals and most successful strategies to ensure that the unfinished agenda is addressed, that the gains that have been realized are maintained, and that the new challenges are faced"³.

Technical Cooperation among Countries constitutes an ideal mechanism and an opportunity to build partnership and develop networks with different sectors of society to address the determinants of health through concrete actions and consensus-based public policies aimed at attaining the highest possible level of health for all.

This mechanism is continuously revised and the contribution of Member States is most welcome.

¹Values, Vision, and Mission of PAHO/WHO. Website Pan-American Health Organization. World Health Organization.

²CTP por las siglas en español: Cooperación Técnica entre Países.

³Annual Report of the Director 2003: Moving towards a New Century of HealthI, Pan American Health Organization, Message of the Director, page xiii. This can be accessed at www.paho.org

TCC Seminar: The Role of WHO in Fostering Technical Cooperation Among Countries, 21 May 2008, Geneva, Switzerland

Message from the Director