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The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body set up to establish a new Pandemic Agreement resumed its discussions this week in a final lap aiming to conclude the negotiation, with numerous hurdles along the way to the finish line including process concerns, divergence on key issues and factors external to the World Health Organization.

Crunch time dawns in the hallways of WHO, where 194 countries are meeting to hash out a new legal instrument in a desperate face-saving exercise running against a vengeful clock. All-too-familiar fears of a H5N1 outbreak are snapping at the heels of governments, as they grapple with the big questions of a new health emergency architecture – from surveillance to financing, from Pathogen Access and Benefits-Sharing to One Health.

On Monday 29 April negotiations started and, as TWN had been reporting, the modalities proposed by the INB Bureau - which had already sidelined developing countries, excluded them from informal negotiations and altogether erased language proposed by them - have reiterated these effects during the INB session for key provisions.

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Negotiations surrounding the Pandemic Treaty continue as the deadline for endorsing the new mechanism approaches. However, the version under discussion fails to address critical issues pertaining to health equity.

The next round of Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) negotiations for the Pandemic Treaty began on April 29, following two years of discussions. With the treaty text set to be finalized at the World Health Assembly at the end of May, uncertainties persist regarding the current state of negotiations, marked by numerous unresolved issues. The main question remains: will the Treaty genuinely fulfill its promise of equity and justice, or will it merely pay lip service to these ideals?

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) pandemic agreement negotiations begin their final two-week stretch on Monday (28 April) amid a gamble with the process, a show of unity from African member states – and more suggestions for the draft text.

This final intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) meeting will focus on finding “common ground and consensus”, according to a decision taken at the last fractious meeting.

The programme of work sets down 12-hour days, with the first week (29 April-3 May) focusing on finalising the substantive negotiations on the draft text. 

A “stock take” of progress will be held on Friday 3 May, and the second week (6-10 May) will look at outstanding articles, along with the draft resolution for the World Health Assembly at the end of May.

The INB Bureau has also undertaken to provide daily briefing to relevant stakeholders on progress.

A few health civil society organizations also issued a joint statement criticizing key aspects of the INB process and advocating for their demands. They comprehend issues of intellectual property, benefit-sharing and healthcare workers on the important aspects the current draft neglects.

Four legally binding provisions in 83 paragraphs between Article 4-24. Only 4.8% of the entire substantive provisions are legally binding. All the rest are best endeavour, opt outs, non-mandatory, general statements.

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In the eighth meeting of the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (WGIHR), which was suspended yesterday until 16 May, State Parties to the IHR took a major step towards agreeing on the package of amendments which will be put forward to the World Health Assembly, which takes place from 27 May–1 June.

The amendments, proposed by IHR State Parties in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen the international community’s ability to detect and respond to pandemic threats, will be further discussed at the resumed eighth meeting on 16-17 May with a view to finalizing an agreed package for submission to the World Health Assembly in May for its consideration and, if agreed, formal adoption.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) working group has failed to meet its deadline of Friday (26 April) for amending the rules governing global disease outbreaks – the International Health Regulations (IHR) – and will reconvene.

This emerged late afternoon on Friday (26 April) at a briefing after the week-long Working Group of Amendments to the IHR (WGIHR), when drawn co-chair Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced that the group would reconvene on 16 and 17 May for a final two days’ negotiation.

“The mood in the room has been outstanding, and we have worked really hard to make amazing progress. We’re not quite cracking the bottles of champagne and sparkling grape juice, but we were getting very close and I have every sense that you are all committed to finishing the job,” said Bloomfield.

WHO Deputy Director General Dr Mike Ryan commended the group, saying he was “very confident” that the IHR would be  “a clearer, better instrument for your efforts, something that we can apply better on your behalf and on behalf of the people that you serve”.

On 16 April, the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, published its Proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement to be discussed at the resumed session of INB9. This Proposal is based on discussions and negotiations among WHO member states that have taken place over the last two years. 

It has not been an easy two years. The spirit of solidarity that was fuelling the decision to start negotiating a Pandemic Agreement vanished quickly when proposals regarding product sharing, technology transfer, management of intellectual property (IP), access to know-how, transparency, and pathogen access and benefit sharing (PABS) were put on the table. These are all essential elements of greater equity in access to pandemic countermeasures.

We have been following several key elements of the equity agenda, in particular, the issues related to technology transfer and IP, including access to undisclosed information and know-how.

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are reaching out to you to underscore our grave concerns regarding the negotiation process of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) for the Pandemic Agreement.

The resumed 9 th session of the INB is the last round of negotiation prior to the 77 th World Health Assembly (WHA). The INB Bureau and the WHO Secretariat are pushing hard for acceptance of the draft Pandemic Agreement as proposed by the Bureau and the Secretariat with minimal changes, at the resumed session, setting the stage for its adoption at the 77 th WHA. While we acknowledge the importance of adopting a Pandemic Agreement earliest possible, such an Agreement must contain concrete measures and mechanisms that change the status quo, operationalize equity and foster international solidarity for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR).

African governments are falling far short in their commitments to prioritize public spending on health care, contributing to widespread inequalities in healthcare access and outcomes, Human Rights Watch and the Kampala-based Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) said today. As the 23rd anniversary of African Union states’ historic commitment approaches, new data reveal alarming stagnation, widening regional inequalities, and pointing up the need to correct course.

On April 27, 2001, African Union (AU) governments adopted the Abuja Declaration, in which they set a target of allocating at least 15 percent of their national budgets to improve health care. But recent analysis of two decades of data found that only two of the AU’s 55 member countries — Cabo Verde and South Africa — met this target in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.