WHO negotiators confident of ‘good outcome’ of pandemic deal

World Health Organization negotiators are confident a “good outcome” will be reached by the end of next week, allowing for the first international agreement to strengthen preparedness and response to future pandemics.

“There is still a lot of work to be done, but we are very confident that we will have a good result at the end of next week,” said Roland Dries, co-president of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), created in December. This agreement will be negotiated in 2021 among the 194 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dries was speaking at a press conference as the ninth round of negotiations takes place with the goal of reaching this legally binding agreement by May 10, which will then be presented to the World Health Assembly, the highest decision-making body in the world WHO, which will meet in end of this month.

At the heart of this agreement is the need to guarantee equal access to the resources needed to prevent pandemics – vaccines, personal protective equipment, specialized scientific information and knowledge – as well as access to healthcare at the global level.

“What has happened in recent years with the Covid-19 crisis has proven that the world was not well prepared to work together to combat and prevent pandemics at the cost of many lives,” stressed the INB co-president.

In negotiations of this type, which last about two years, “it is normal for everything to come together in the last few days,” Roland Brice said, adding that if an understanding that leads to an agreement is not possible, it will be decided by the WHO’s highest body about next steps.

“We remain optimistic about a good outcome, but if there is no consensus at the end of next week, the World Health Assembly will have to decide what to do next,” he said.

Precious Matsoso, also a co-chair of the talks, said there was “an important process” at stake to improve prevention and the global response to future pandemics, but “no country will be forced into an agreement.”

It’s about “negotiating the best possible solution that can make the world safer and fairer in terms of access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapies that can help prevent outbreaks from becoming pandemics,” he stressed.

In a speech addressed to member states’ negotiators in Geneva, the WHO director-general stressed that “disagreements between countries involved in this process still exist” but they are now “much smaller than they have been” in the past two years.

“We all want the same thing: to make the world safer against pandemics,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for whom “consensus does not mean unanimity.”

“I recognize that there may be delegations that, despite their good faith efforts, may not be able to adhere to consensus, but they have a choice. They can choose not to block consensus,” the head of the organization said. .

The decision for an international legally binding convention was taken in the wake of Covid-19 and was driven by the need to better prepare and protect populations, governments and all sectors of society to prevent and respond to future pandemics. .