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.
‘Take it or leave it’
After the previous session at which member states expressed frustration with one another and the INB Bureau, the INB co-chairs have taken a gamble with the process this time – and member states may not play along.
The multitude of bracketed contested text has been purged from the new draft, and the co-chairs want the meeting to focus on saying “yes”, rather than being bogged down by disagreements.
The meeting will go through the 23-page draft paragraph by paragraph, and member states that don’t agree with the text will be invited to have informal sessions, the co-chairs told a recent stakeholder briefing.
But the draft will be considered as the default text where there is no consensus, which the co-chairs described as a “take it or leave it” approach.