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On 17 April 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the Proposed Bureau’s text in advance of the 8th meeting of the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) (WGIHR) which meets from 22–26 April 2024. Accompanying the 64 page Bureau text is an accompanying, non-public document on the rationales underpinning the proposed Bureau’s text for WGIHR 8.

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uring my visit to Cambodia last year, I examined the state of malaria control in the country and provided recommendations for how to sustain the country’s success against the disease. This kind of strategic analysis is not new for me. I spent 15 years leading USAID’s malaria programs, culminating in designing and soliciting support for the U.S. government’s largest malaria program – the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which launched in 2005.

My recommendations largely focused on integrating future malaria surveillance into a broader program focusing on the major causes of fever-inducing, or febrile, illnesses in Cambodia. We presented these recommendations to the Cambodia National Malaria Control Program (CNM), as well as USAID and PMI, and have been endorsed by the CNM to create a concept paper for field validation. URC will lead the effort under the Cambodia Malaria Elimination Project 2 (CMEP2), which URC implements.

My observations and experiences with malaria in Cambodia from 2005 through my most recent trip in 2023 are remarkable.

The Zero Draft of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) to be adopted at the Summit of the Future is crucial to international digital cooperation under a transformative vision of global digital governance. It should identify the means for achieving equitable participation, sustainable development, gender equality, increased local capacity, public ownership of core digital infrastructure and address the concentration of power in the digital economy. This SouthViews considers some of the shortcomings of the draft GDC, particularly in attaining equitable international data governance and democratic participation in a digital multistakeholder scenario to avoid data monopolies and ensure inclusive policy-making processes, while recentering the objectives of Internet governance for inclusive and development-oriented information societies.

Climate change threatens India's 378 million women of childbearing age with anemia due to rising temperatures and declining crop nutrients.

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A 2017 Harvard study published in GeoHealth journal that analyzed diets from 152 countries found that wheat, rice, barley, maize, and legumes have lower iron concentrations of 4%-10% when grown under increased carbon dioxide concentration. This puts 57% of children under age 5 — a staggering 354 million —- and 1.06 billion women of childbearing age, at risk of anemia.

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Governments worldwide are pushing farmers to adopt genetically modified hybrid varieties to combat food insecurity and feed the rapidly growing population. These varieties are easy to grow and have a higher yield than native ones, but they require intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the overuse of which impacts the soil and its nutrients, leading to a decline in essential nutrients in the crops.

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The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the failure of voluntary mechanisms during global emergencies and exemplifies the need for effective involuntary technology transfer tools. The WHO Pandemic Accord offers an opportunity to provide an effective mechanism to build upon existing TRIPS flexibilities in the specific pandemic context. We propose a new provision (Article 11bis) that outlines a mechanism on cross-border procedure of non-voluntary technology transfer during a pandemic. This procedure could be invoked in a pandemic scenario in which voluntary technology transfer mechanisms have failed to provide sufficient supplies of a needed pandemic product.

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The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the failure of voluntary mechanisms during global emergencies and exemplifies the need for effective involuntary technology transfer tools. The WHO Pandemic Accord offers an opportunity to provide an effective mechanism to build upon existing TRIPS flexibilities in the specific pandemic context. We propose a new provision (Article 11 bis ) that outlines a mechanism on cross-border procedure of non-voluntary technology transfer during a pandemic. This procedure could be invoked in a pandemic scenario in which voluntary technology transfer mechanisms have failed to provide sufficient supplies of a needed pandemic product.

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An independent panel released its much-awaited report on Monday about the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), providing 50 recommendations and noting that Israeli authorities have yet to provide proof of their claims that UN staff are involved with terrorist organisations.

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The penultimate meeting of a World Health Organization (WHO) working group to amend the International Health Regulations (IHR) began in Geneva on Monday amid stakeholder praise and criticism for the latest 64-page draft.

The IHR are legally binding and sets out countries’ rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential to cross borders. But they were found lacking during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Working Group on Amendments to the IHR (WGIHR) has been considering over 300 amendments over the past two years.

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This negotiation is taking place at the World Health Organization (WHO), but it is useful to reflect on negotiations that have taken place at the World Trade Organization (WTO), where delayed outcomes were disappointing outcomes. In the negotiations over the 2001 Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, paragraph 6 of that agreement concerned one of the most contentious topics, a restriction in the TRIPS on the exports of products manufactured under a compulsory license. That export restriction undermines the ability to benefit from economies of scale and comparative advantage, is clearly protectionist and designed to reduce the utility of compulsory licenses, has a negative impact on both exporters and importers, and has a particularly harmful impact on countries with smaller market (something noted by the WTO in DS114): 6. We recognize that WTO members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face difficulties in making effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement. We instructed the Council for TRIPS to find an expeditious solution to this problem and to report to the General Council before the end of 2002.

Earlier this week the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body released the latest draft of the Pandemic Agreement due for consideration at a resumed meeting beginning April 29^th that will see marathon negotiations with an aim to conclude this process by May 10^th.

The text is not markedly different from a previous version on which we reported on April 16th but there are certain changes – these we discuss below. The latest version has not been officially published by the INB yet.

What is also on the table is a draft resolution text that lays out the link between the main agreement and processes that would follow the adoption of the text at the Assembly including setting up of Intergovernmental Working Groups for certain provisions, immediate tasks for the WHO Director-General to follow through.