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An analysis by Sangeeta Shashikant 

As Geneva was winding down for the Christmas break last December, the European Union (EU) circulated a six-page proposal on access and benefit-sharing to World Health Organization (WHO) Members. The proposal comes at a very late stage of the negotiations on the pandemic instrument and is expected to spark significant concerns. The EU proposal, which deviates from international norms established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Nagoya Protocol is expected to exacerbate inequity, discourage the timely sharing of specimens and sequences by WHO Members, undermine national sovereignty, and erode the intergovernmental character of the WHO. The multilateral benefit sharing proposed by the EU is wholly inadequate and terribly flawed. This critique examines in detail the critical aspects that underscore the deficiencies in the EU's proposal and its possible ramifications on international collaboration during public health emergencies.

The first malaria vaccination campaign for children backed by the World Health Organization begins in Africa on Monday, with the distribution of nearly 30mn jabs in the coming months marking a milestone in the fight against the tropical disease. Children in Cameroon will begin receiving malaria vaccines as part of a rollout of the medicine developed by UK pharmaceutical company GSK in up to 12 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. A second vaccination developed by scientists at Oxford university and produced by the Serum Institute of India is set to be delivered in seven countries in May or June. … More than 30 countries across the continent have expressed an interest in receiving malaria jabs. Up to 18mn doses of the RTS, S vaccine are being distributed by Gavi, followed by an estimated 10mn doses of the R21/Matrix-M jab across seven countries in mid-2024.

As we approach the final months of member-state negotiations over a World Health Organization Pandemic Accord, due to come before the World Health Assembly in May, the efforts to forge a consensus have witnessed modest progress. However, the original divide between developed and developing countries on key issues such as finance, access and benefit sharing, transfer of health technologies, and ‘One Health’  approaches to pandemic prevention, continue to cast a long shadow over the process. Some critics worry that an accord, if and when one is achieved by the 2024 deadline, may be less meaningful in terms of substance and impact, because of the compromises required to reach an agreement. This issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot, the latest in the Geneva Graduate Institute series, recaps highlights of the past six months of negotiations. 

Millions of lives around the world could be saved by increasing regional vaccine manufacturing capacity. The Regionalized Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative (RVMC), incubated at the World Economic Forum in partnership with Deloitte and co-chaired by the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), will now be established as a Global Initiative hosted at CEPI. This new Global Initiative will begin with an initial CEPI commitment of $15 million and be led by partner organizations including the Africa CDC, CEPI, Pan-American Health Organization, U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the World Economic Forum in collaboration with both public and private sector leaders across regions. Dr Frederik Kristensen, former Deputy CEO of CEPI will assume the newly created role of RVMC Director.

WHO punches above its weight. Though hamstrung by a relatively small budget compared to its mandate, the UN’s only technical agency works across multiple normative and operational areas simultaneously.

Member states of WHO want to make this organization nimbler, notwithstanding the large UN bureaucracy that it really is.

A number of governance reforms directly linked to financing have been set in motion, flowing from the work towards sustainable financing of WHO.

From a new technical committee to streamline functioning of governing bodies, to better reporting requirements, from budgetary implications of new initiatives to closer scrutiny of top leadership, a slew of these proposals changes is now being discussed. Some stakeholders worry that in the name of efficiency, proposals could undermine the multilateral nature of the organization. But many admit an overhaul of how WHO conducts its business is long overdue.

The following Chair's text, dated 15 January 2024, has been prepared by the Co-convenors of the WTO JSI on E-commerce for the purpose of further review and negotiation. It is without prejudice to the positions or views of Australia, Japan and Singapore as individual WTO Members participating in the negotiation.

Australia, Singapore and Japan, as Co-convenors, take sole responsibility for this Chair's Text, which reflects our judgement on where consensus is most likely to be achieved in the agreement. This Chair's Text does not represent the dropping of any proposals from the Consolidated Text INF/ECOM/62/Rev.5 issued on 15 November 2023, which remains a comprehensive record of proposals, attributions and drafting notes.

The chair of the Doha fisheries subsidies negotiations at the World Trade Organization has issued a draft consolidated text aimed at a “final push” to conclude negotiations on disciplines on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing before the WTO’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) gets underway in Abu Dhabi on 26 February 2024.

At the year-end meeting of the World Trade Organization’s General Council, India apparently argued that the proposed Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement is allegedly “illegal” and cannot be placed on the agenda of the upcoming WTO's 13th ministerial conference (MC13).

Several members of the World Trade Organization sought to know from the facilitator overseeing the reform of the WTO’s dispute settlement system (DSS) as to why his 49-page draft ministerial decision did not include language on the crucial pillar of Appellate Review, particularly the Appellate Body.

The chair of the Doha agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Turkiye, is understood to have held a meeting with a dozen trade envoys on 9 January to elicit their views on how to finalize an outcome document for trade ministers to adopt at the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) that begins in Abu Dhabi on 26 February, said people familiar with the development.

Trade envoys from the United States, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Cameroon, and South Africa apparently attended the meeting.