Sespa participates in the launch of the strategic agenda 'More Health Amazon Brazil'
Launched by Minister Alexandre Padilha, the agenda aims to enhance the Unified Health System in the Amazon and reinforce the commitment to all populations in the region
At the Peoples' Summit, a parallel event to COP30, held this Friday (14) at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), the State Department of Public Health (Sespa) participated in the launch of the strategic agenda "More Health Amazon Brazil" by the Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha. The event brought together managers and specialists at the Benedito Nunes Events Center at UFPA.
The agenda results from the exchange between managers, universities, research centers, social movements, and traditional peoples, representing a joint commitment to well-being, health, and sustainability. It also seeks to strengthen integrated public policies, promote equity, and respond to specific challenges posed by the Amazon territory, such as the diversity of social, economic, and environmental contexts.
The minister detailed that the plan is prepared to understand and face the complexity of a very diverse territory. “Together, we will build a new SUS for the Brazilian Amazon. It must learn, defend the values of SUS, but understand that we need to reorganize a lot to care for the riverside population, the indigenous population, the population in the large metropolis of Belém, in the large metropolis of Manaus, to care for the people of Macapá, to care for those who are on the crossing of BR-163 (Cuiabá-Santarém), on the crossing of the Transamazon region (BR-230), to care for the various indigenous ethnicities,” declared Alexandre Padilha.
New SUS Amazon Brazil - More than a technical material, the strategic agenda stands as a political and symbolic construction. For Silvina Macedo, coordinator of the Popular Health Movement (MOPS-PA), “this plan guides integrated actions to expand access to health and reduce regional inequalities. I am delighted because it speaks of our specificities, of the forest peoples, of the riverside dwellers, of the quilombolas, of the traditional peoples of African descent and all their cultural diversity. It is a plan that we dreamed would be executed by our managers, and today it is a reality,” said the event participant.
Integrated actions that connect health and environment are essential to expand access to health and reduce inequalities. The Deputy Secretary of Sespa, Heloisa Guimarães, emphasized the importance of the strategic agenda: “It is a recovery that health owes to the people of the Amazon, focusing on equity. The strategic health agenda of the Legal Amazon has arrived, and we have high expectations in Minister Padilha, in the Lula Government, in Governor Helder Barbalho, that we will be able to execute it and provide people with what they need most: health and dignity,” said Heloisa Guimarães.
The Government of Pará, through Sespa, reaffirms the importance of a more diverse and integrated SUS that respects the complexity of the Amazon territory. Sespa strengthens policies aimed at indigenous peoples, riverside dwellers, quilombolas, and other populations of the Legal Amazon.
Text: Mariela Oliveira - Ascom/Sespa
