The election of the new executive director for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will move forward on schedule, according to a statement released by the organisation on Tuesday, 7 July. This announcement follows rumours that the nomination process might be restarted after the names of several US candidates who were reportedly […] Continue reading ->
The Pandemic Agreement talks resumed at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) headquarters on Monday, kicking off with a public “debriefing” summarising the incremental progress made during informal talks conducted over May and June, followed by a closed session on existing models for sharing data on pathogens with pandemic potential. Speaking at the opening of the […] Continue reading ->
What’s left to tackle in the PABS talks? As the clock ran out, and then was extended for another year, on negotiations over the Pandemic Agreement’s Annex on Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS), the diplomacy and the nitty-gritty of the issues faced were deeply linked This edition of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot of the Geneva […] Continue reading ->
World leaders need to finalise the Pandemic Agreement by applying political will at the “highest level”, a spirit of equity and a sense of urgency. This is the call made by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in an open letter published on Monday […] Continue reading ->
WHO emergency funds are running low, and global health leaders are concerned about a systemic paralysis in pandemic preparedness. In high-level discussions in Geneva, experts explored the geopolitical rifts, pitting the Global South’s demand to treat pandemic tools as legally binding “public goods” against a European push for market-driven surge financing. As a severe Ebola […] Continue reading ->
The world is not ready for the next pandemic – and it won’t be unless local capacity is strengthened, global health experts agreed at an event in Geneva on Tuesday. Does anyone brief cruise ship captains, cruise operators and passengers from Argentina that hantavirus is an endemic virus? asked Helen Clark, co-chair of the Independent […] Continue reading ->
As the World Health Assembly opens on Monday in Geneva, it will have to grapple with shrinking global health budgets, new outbreak threats, including a new WHO declaration of a public health emergency in Africa over an Ebola virus strain that lacks any vaccine, and an increasingly fractured geopolitical space with deep disputes over Iran, […] Continue reading ->
Yet another negotiating session on the outstanding annex of the Pandemic Agreement begins at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) headquarters on Monday (27 April) – and developed nations have presented a “hybrid” solution in an attempt to find consensus. The “hybrid” proposal consists of a mix of mandatory and voluntary measures for sharing pathogen information […] Continue reading ->
Sweeping UK aid cuts have drastically reduced direct bilateral funding to African countries, posing a severe threat to the continent’s most fragile health systems. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) officials recently confirmed a steep 31% multi-year reduction of the foreign aid budget, shrinking overall spending from £13.7 billion to an estimated £9.2 billion by […] Continue reading ->
A snail would have a faster passage than the Pandemic Agreement talks currently underway in Geneva, according to a briefing on Wednesday by civil society observers – some of whom mooted the possibility of World Health Organization (WHO) member states voting on the outstanding annex to break the deadlock. Only one portion of a single […] Continue reading ->