The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an international public health technical cooperation agency with more than 100 years of experience in working to improve the health and living standards of the people of the Americas. Founded in 1902 as a technical agency for health of the Organization of American States, the organization enjoys international recognition being, since 1946, part of the United Nations system and serving as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO). PAHO has 1,885 full-time employees of which about 800 are scientific and technical experts. About one-third of the staff is based at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the remaining distributed in 28 country offices and eight scientific centers.