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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 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 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 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.

The 6th meeting of the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations 2005 (WGIHR6) has decided to focus on equity and allocate more time to the discussions on amendment proposals relating to equity in its upcoming 7^th meeting, to be held on 5 to 9 February 2024.  

Attempts to push for an early harvest approach on amendment proposals relating to surveillance, sanitary, and quarantine measures, and the structure and role of national authorities, were dropped due to resistance from developing countries.

There has been very limited comments on the media and even in academic journals on the major changes in the strategies of tuberculosis, globally and at the national level.

At the Global level a High-Level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the End TB Strategy was held in September 2023. In the same week there were similar high-level meetings on pandemic preparedness and on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) – and these got more attention. The meeting on Tuberculosis has adopted the “ Political Declaration on the High-Level Meeting on the Fight Against Tuberculosis” (1)(UNGA,2023)

Import-dependent developing countries suffered tremendously during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the inability to secure international supplies of vaccines. The importance of diversifying production is now acknowledged both nationally and internationally. The paper critically reviews the initiatives underway to develop the vaccine and pharmaceutical industries with special reference to African countries which have been among the worst affected during the pandemic.

The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) allows WTO Members to agree to temporarily waive obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). However, the TRIPS Decision adopted by the 12th ^WTO Ministerial Conference in June 2022, after lengthy and protracted negotiations lasting for 20 months in the middle of a pandemic, allowed only a fragment of the waiver proposal submitted by India and South Africa. Moreover, since the adoption of the Decision there has been an impasse in the WTO about extending the Decision to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics even though the WTO Members were mandated by the Decision to decide on this matter within six months of the Decision. This research paper analyzes the current state of play and concludes that there is a need to immediately and unconditionally extend the Decision to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. Moreover, the paper suggests options for how the TRIPS flexibilities can be optimally utilized in a pandemic situation without developing countries being resigned to the vagaries of negotiations on a waiver which is supposed to be an