from EURACTIV
Controversial topics, little time and closed doors – talks are moving slowly and significant disagreements are yet to be negotiated among the World Health Organisation (WHO) members on a Pandemic Accord.
Given the complex and delicate topics on the table, doubts persist as to whether the 194 WHO member states will be able to agree on a pandemic treaty with any significant impact. At the same time, their deadline for an agreement on 24 May 2024 at the World Health Assembly (WHA) is extremely tight.
“I think it’s going to be challenging for member states to meet the deadline. My perception from the last session [in July] is that the process is moving slowly,” Daniela Morich, manager and advisor at the Governing Pandemics Initiative hosted by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told Euractiv.
Agreeing on a new WHO instrument could be an opportunity to ensure better prevention and preparedness for future pandemics as well as agree on how to improve global response and global access to medical countermeasures.
The talks are happening in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), which WHO members decided to establish in 2021 to draft and negotiate a new WHO instrument.
Many of the ongoing informal talks and drafting sessions have happened behind closed doors until now. So far, countries have been meeting to try to understand each other’s positions, but text-based negotiations still have not begun and compromises on the most tricky topics will be difficult to reach...
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