Governing Bodies

Governing Bodies comprise the following: The Pan American Sanitary Conference, the Directing Council, and the Executive Committee. The auxiliary advisory body to the Executive Committee is the Subcommittee on Program, Budget, and Administration.

Pan American Sanitary Conference

The Conference is the supreme governing authority of the Organization and meets every five years to determine its general policies. The Conference also serves as a forum for the interchange of information and ideas relating to the prevention of disease; the preservation, promotion and restoration of mental and physical health; and the advancement of sociomedical measures and facilities for the prevention and treatment of physical and mental diseases in the Western Hemisphere.

Directing Council

The Council meets once a year in those years when the Conference does not meet. It acts on behalf of the Conference between sessions of the Conference.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is composed of nine Member States of the Organization, elected by the Conference or the Council for overlapping periods of three years. The Committee, which meets twice a year, acts as a working party of the Conference or Council.Special meetings are convoked by the Director of the Bureau either on his/her own initiative or upon request of at least three Member States. The Committee has an auxiliary advisory body, the Subcommittee on Program, Budget, and Administration.

Subcommittee on Program, Budget and Administration

The Subcommittee on Program, Budget and Administration is an auxiliary advisory body of the Executive Committee with responsibility for aspects of Program, Budget and Administration. It reviews and as appropriate, makes recommendations to the Executive Committee in these areas. The Subcommittee consists of seven Members, four of whom have terns of office running concurrently with those of their membership on the Executive and three designated annually by the Director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau in consultation with the President of the Executive Committee in order to seek balanced and adequate geographical distribution. The Subcommittee holds at least one public session a year on dates to be decided by the Executive Committee. Additional sessions may be convened in the years when the Program Budget of the Organization is being considered.