UNGA: WORLD LEADERS PLEDGE COMMITMENT TO RESPOND TO FUTURE PANDEMICS

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus talks during a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquaters in Geneva on March 11, 2020. - WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on March 11, 2020 that the new coronavirus outbreak can now be characterised as a pandemic. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

AS W.H.O. WELCOMES THE “HISTORIC” COMMITMENT TO INVEST, PREPARE, PREVENT HEALTH OUTBREAKS

By Vincess Okushi

The World Health Organization has welcomed the political declaration on the “historic” commitment by global leaders to strengthen the international cooperation, coordination, governance, and investment needed to prevent a repeat of the devastating health and socioeconomic impact caused by COVID-19, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

This was disclosed in a News Release by Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General on 20th September 2023.

He said this declaration will make the world to better prepare for future pandemics, and get back on track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The first-ever head of state summit on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response is a historic milestone in the urgent drive to make all people of the world safer, and better protected from the devastating impacts of pandemics

I welcome this commitment by world leaders to provide the political support and direction needed so that WHO, governments, and all involved can protect people’s health and take concrete steps towards investing in local capacities, ensuring equity, and supporting the global emergency health architecture that the world needs.

According to the release, the political declaration was approved by Dennis Francis, President of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, underscoring the result of negotiations under the leadership of Ambassadors Gilad Erdan of Israel and Omar Hilale of Morocco, as well as the pivotal role played by WHO as the directing and coordinating authority on international health, and the need to commit further to sustainable financing that provides adequate and predictable funding to the World Health Organization, which enables it to have the resources needed to fulfill its core functions.

  The lived experience of people who suffered through the COVID-19 pandemic must be at the forefront of our minds going forward to realize the clear direction provided by world leaders

We must learn how to protect our communities better and to engage, inform, and empower them to be part of the solution. We need to build stronger clinical care systems that can save lives. Doing so requires concrete actions to ensure equitable access to medical countermeasures, sustainable and adequate financing, empowered and engaged communities, and robust, trained, and equipped health workers

The devastating impacts of COVID-19 demonstrated why the world needs a more collaborative, cohesive, and equitable approach to preventing, preparing for, and responding to pandemics said Dr. Tedros.

Dr. Tedros also said governments and multilateral partners have already commenced building the foundations for a safer world, through the establishment of the Pandemic Fund, the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, the WHO BioHub to voluntarily share novel biological materials, and the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub.

Adding that the political declaration approved on Wednesday called for further strengthening of the global health emergency architecture to better protect the world from a repeat of COVID-19.

Stressing that among numerous measures required, the political declaration also recognized the need for Member States to:

Conclude negotiations on a WHO convention, agreement, or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, otherwise known as the Pandemic Accord, and continue their work to make targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) by May 2024;

In line with the Pandemic Accord process, ensure sustainable, affordable, fair, equitable, effective, efficient, and timely access to medical countermeasures, including vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and other health products;

Take measures to counter and address the negative impacts of health-related misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, and stigmatization, especially on social media platforms, on people’s physical and mental health, including countering vaccine hesitancy in the context of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response and to foster trust in public health systems and authorities, including by increasing public health education, literacy, and awareness, while recognizing that the effective engagement of stakeholders requires access to timely, accurate and evidence-based information and awareness raising including through the use of digital health tools;

To protect our communities through investing in primary health care and other health system measures, as part of a commitment to universal health coverage, to ensure robust national health systems are in place to respond to future pandemics;

Invest in ensuring WHO is strengthened to the level needed to play its role in responding to pandemic threats. Sustainable financing of WHO, and national health systems, is essential for making the world safer;

Strengthen health workforce and rapid response capacities, surveillance and supply systems, and local manufacturing abilities, to enable and empower all countries to have the ability to meet their own needs to prevent, prepare for, and respond to pandemics.

Scale up health system capacities to address pandemic threats in low- and lower-middle-income countries, especially across Africa;

Counter and address the negative impacts of health-related misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, and stigmatization, especially on social media platforms, on people’s physical and mental health, to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, and foster trust in public health systems and authorities;

Leverage the potential of the multilateral system and scale up the multisectoral approach needed to improve pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, due to the multifaceted causes and consequences of pandemics, which support the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It is the hope of WHO that the approval of the political declaration by the UN General Assembly president, and leaders of United Nations Member States will further buttress the critical importance of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response and the need for a robust, coordinated, and comprehensive global health emergency architecture for socioeconomic benefit.

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