The Political Declaration to be adopted at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) on 25 September has been modified since being placed under the “silence procedure” in late July.

This is according to those close to the process, who told Health Policy Watch that most changes are relatively minor – bar the removal of reference to tuberculosis as one of the world’s leading infectious diseases.

A welcome addition is a timeline change, with progress on pandemic preparedness to be reviewed in three years instead of five. 

The reference to “sexual and reproductive health” has so far survived, opening the door for the United States and allies to contest this on the day, as has become their custom.

Armenia and Rwanda, the co-facilitators of the declaration negotiations, put the “final” text of the declaration for the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on PPPR in September under the silence procedure on 28 July.

“As UN member states consider next drafts of the Political Declaration, they must ask themselves: will the text make the pledge of ‘never again’ a reality? Is it upholding the principles of multilateralism, solidarity and equity?” asked Helen Clark, part of a new coalition calling itself the Friends of the High-Level Meeting on PPPR. 

“Dangerous pathogens have proved time and again that we must build stronger systems and simply cannot afford to retreat,” added Clark, who is co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response and a member of The Elders.

Both organisations are co-convenors of the Friends, alongside FOUR PAWS and Resilience Action Network International (rani). 

The Friends reiterated that $15 billion a year is needed to pandemic-proof the world

“All regions and subregions must have the financing and capabilities needed to prevent and rapidly respond to health threats, including to rapidly produce vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and other countermeasures they need,” they note.