WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After more than three years of intensive negotiations, WHO Member States took a major step forward in efforts to make the world safer from pandemics, by forging a draft agreement for consideration at the upcoming World Health Assembly.
The proposal aims to strengthen global collaboration on prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemic threats.
In December 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, WHO Member States had established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument, under the WHO Constitution, to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Following several rounds of negotiations on various aspects of the draft agreement, the INB on Wednesday finalized a proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The outcome of the INB's work will now be presented to the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly, to be held in May, for its consideration.
'The nations of the world made history in Geneva today,' said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 'In reaching consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, not only did they put in place a generational accord to make the world safer, they have also demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well, and that in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground, and a shared response to shared threats.'
Proposals within the text developed by the INB include establishing a pathogen access and benefit sharing system; taking concrete measures on pandemic prevention, including through a One Health approach; and building geographically diverse research and development capacities.
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