Governance
The governance of the Salud Mesoamerica Initiative is structured through the Mesoamerican Health Fund, which seeks to improve the health systems through a framework of accountability and transparent decision making. This framework ensures the technical quality of performance-based non-reimbursable financing operations, efficient programming, results-based disbursements, and rigorous stakeholder reporting standards. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provides technical services for the preparation, monitoring, implementation, and evaluation of operations, as well as the administration of the fund's financial resources.
The Donors Committee, composed of representatives of each donor, is responsible for establishing the fund's strategies and priorities, considering proposals for eligible operations and authorizing their financing, supervising the execution of operations, and approving and modifying operating regulations. The SMI's Executive Secretary acts as secretary to the Donors Committee and supports regional coordination activities. The Coordinating Unit, under the responsibility of the Executive Secretary, provides technical and administrative support to the fund, coordinating the preparation, execution, supervision, and evaluation of eligible operations.
Dr. Emma Iriarte is the Executive Secretary of SMI. She is a Senior Sector Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a medical doctor from the National University of Honduras, with a master's degree in public health from Tulane University and executive training at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Dr. Iriarte has extensive experience in health programs that seek to reduce inequities, especially for women, newborns, and adolescents in vulnerable communities. She is also recognized for her fight against malaria in Mesoamerica and the Dominican Republic.