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We are all aware that negotiations, particularly of the WHO CA+, but also to some extent the WG-IHR, are in a difficult place. The central issues of concern are of how low and middle income countries can access epidemic and pandemic countermeasures equitably, and also the nature of any pathogens access and benefits system. There are many issues within these two areas, including distributed production of countermeasures across the world, the technology transfer, TRIPS matters and the balance between equity and the need to ensure that research and innovation continues in the pharmaceutical industries.

Countries have taken firm positions but some progress has been made through informal Member State led sessions on the relevant Articles. Even there, concerns have been raised in some countries, particularly the poorer ones, that they simply do not have the resource to engage with so many meetings. These informals have at least increased understanding of what are the underlying concerns of particular Member States.

Coalition of Advocates for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness

For months, we have watched as Member States have tried to negotiate a UN Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPPR) ahead of the UN High Level Meeting in September.

With groups of Member States at odds on equity issues, these negotiations have gone severely off track.

This is the time to deliver a Political Declaration that is ambitious, timely, and in pursuit of a level of equity that has yet to be achieved in global health. As Directors of civil society and community organizations working globally on health, the HIV response, and pandemic preparedness, we see and experience first-hand the risk of failing to deliver, particularly for marginalized, criminalized, and under-resourced communities.

While July saw a crush of global pandemic-related meetings – some joint and some clashing – to accommodate tight schedules and northern summer holidays, achieving a pandemic-proof world is still a long way off. 

The two pandemic negotiations underway at the World Health Organization (WHO) have held individual and joint meetings over the past few weeks, with talks dominated by equity, early warnings for pandemics and financing.

The Working Group on amendments to the IHR (WGIHR) is strengthening the International Health Regulations (IHR), the only legally binding global rules governing health emergencies. 

Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is developing a pandemic accord to address other gaps that emerged during COVID-19 – particularly how to ensure equitable access to vaccines and medicines.

While July saw a crush of global pandemic-related meetings – some joint and some clashing – to accommodate tight schedules and northern summer holidays, achieving a pandemic-proof world is still a long way off. 

The two pandemic negotiations underway at the World Health Organization (WHO) have held individual and joint meetings over the past few weeks, with talks dominated by equity, early warnings for pandemics and financing.

The Working Group on amendments to the IHR (WGIHR) is strengthening the International Health Regulations (IHR), the only legally binding global rules governing health emergencies. 

Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is developing a pandemic accord to address other gaps that emerged during COVID-19 – particularly how to ensure equitable access to vaccines and medicines.

Notable progress has been made since May 2023 by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (the INB). The Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly in May 2023 played an important role in maintaining the momentum towards our objective to deliver a pandemic accord to the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2024. Shortly after, on 12-16 June 2023, the INB Bureau continued its work during the resumed session of the fifth meeting of the INB (INB5 resumed session). The INB considered the Bureau’s text and agreed on innovative ways of working, empowering interested Member States to facilitate informal discussions. We are grateful for the leadership of the WHO Member States that have volunteered to help to bridge the gaps on key issues. Their hard work during the intersessional period will pay off. Once again, our diversity will make us stronger.

WHO member states came together in recent days in the first substantive joint session that brought together the bureaux of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body and the Working Group of amendments to the International Health Regulations.

With a mere ten months away from the May 2024 deadline, where both these processes are expected to conclude and culminate in the adoption of new amendments to the IHR and a potentially new pandemic instrument, countries this week grappled with the basics such as what would legally constitute a pandemic, how it would be declared, what kind of actions would it trigger and most importantly, how would these elements sit across the two different, overlapping legal mechanisms. There was also consideration of a few key topics that have featured in both these tracks of negotiations.

The thorny and unresolved issues of how to incorporate health equity measures and supportive finance for low and middle income countries into revisions of the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR), are set to be two key items on the agenda of an IHR negotiating body when talks resume again in early October. 

This was one of the key messages at the close of the fourth meeting of the WHO Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations, which concluded today after a week of discussions. 

The thorny and unresolved issues of how to incorporate health equity measures and supportive finance for low and middle income countries into revisions of the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR), are set to be two key items on the agenda of an IHR negotiating body when talks resume again in early October. 

This was one of the key messages at the close of the fourth meeting of the WHO Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations, which concluded today after a week of discussions. 

Although most negotiations took place behind closed doors, the meeting report that was discussed briefly in a public session on Friday provided a snippet of the talks so far and the envisioned way forward.  

The fourth meeting of the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (WGIHR4) is to discuss various developed country amendment proposals focusing on accelerated information sharing and compliance. These proposals are from the USA, the European Union (EU), Switzerland and New Zealand. WGIHR4 will take place at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva on 24-28 July in a hybrid mode. … The third meeting of WGIHR had focussed on amendment proposals on Article 13 (public health response), new article 13 A (equitable access to health products, technologies and know-how), 43 (additional health measures), 44 (collaboration and cooperation), new article 44A (financing mechanism), New Article 53A (implementation and compliance). This week the majority of the amendment proposals under consideration are from developed countries. Many of these aim at enhancing the obligations on information sharing and compliance that on the surface seem reasonable but can be negative for developing countries.

The worst outcome of the two World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic negotiations currently underway would be the adoption of contradictory definitions and processes, warned Dr Mike Ryan, the head of health emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday. “At the very minimum, the two instruments will need to be very aligned on the […]