The Clean Air Institute Enters Into Official Relations with PAHO
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On June 18, during its 178th Session in Washington, D.C., the Executive Committee of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) approved the admission of the Clean Air Institute (CAI) into official relations with the Organization. The decision — reflected in resolution CE178.R11 on Non-State Actors in Official Relations with PAHO — was supported by a majority of PAHO's Member States, who recognized CAI's contributions to advancing evidence-based air quality and health policies across the Americas.
Official relations is the formal status PAHO grants to non-state actors — technical institutions, academic bodies, and civil society organizations — whose expertise and regional networks can strengthen the Organization's technical cooperation with its Member States. For CAI, it opens a more structured channel to support PAHO's work on air pollution and health, and to participate in the governance spaces where regional health policy is shaped.
Years in the making
This recognition is the result of sustained, technical collaboration with PAHO across the region, not a single initiative. Some milestones from that collaboration:
Between 2020 and 2021, CAI supported PAHO's regional work plan to reduce the burden of disease and health inequities attributable to air pollution and black carbon, with emphasis on Small Island Developing States. This included technical assistance to PAHO's Initiative to Eliminate the Use of Solid Fuels for Cooking and Heating and the piloting of WHO's Carbon-H tool to assess the health co-benefits of countries' climate commitments.
In 2023, CAI designed the roadmap for a Regional Expert Group on AirQ+, aimed at strengthening the region's long-term capacity to assess the health impacts of air pollution for policymaking.
Also in 2023, CAI led the development of a roadmap to integrate short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP) mitigation actions into Trinidad and Tobago's air quality and public health agenda.
Between 2023 and 2024, CAI carried out a regional assessment of air quality management capacities across 152 of the most populous cities in Latin America and the Caribbean, identifying gaps and priority areas for collaboration toward the WHO Air Quality Guidelines and the SDGs.
In 2024, CAI supported the update of Trinidad and Tobago's Air Pollution Rules, developing emission-reduction scenarios and estimating their associated health co-benefits through 2030.
Between 2024 and 2025, CAI led the technical process behind a national protocol for the design and operation of air quality monitoring networks in the Dominican Republic, working alongside PAHO and the country's Ministry of Environment to redesign the monitoring network with a public-health focus.
Together, this body of work — spanning technical cooperation projects, country-level assistance, capacity building, and participation in regional governance spaces — laid the foundation PAHO's Member States pointed to in supporting CAI's admission.
Looking ahead
CAI is deeply grateful to the Member States that supported this recommendation and to the PAHO team for its trust over these years of collaboration. Official relations status does not close a chapter — it opens the next one: CAI will continue contributing technical expertise to the region's air quality, climate, and health agenda, working alongside PAHO toward clean air as a fundamental condition for health.
Learn more about the 178th Session of PAHO's Executive Committee and its resolutions on the PAHO governance website.
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