As United Nations (UN) member states meet in New York on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the political declaration to be adopted at the General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Pandemics in September, there are growing concerns that the current draft is weak and proposes an over-reliance on the World Health Organization (WHO) to manage future pandemics.

The current draft – pared down from 58 to 15 pages – has dispensed with a number of critical concerns, particularly about how future pandemics will be governed, located almost entirely with the WHO.

The most vocal criticism of the draft comes from the co-chairs of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, which has proposed a high-level independent oversight group to govern global pandemic responses.

“We are gravely concerned that the opportunity presented by the High-Level Meeting and the expected Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response is being squandered,” wrote Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Helen Clark in an open letter released on Sunday.

“The current draft of the political declaration… does not express the commitments required of heads of state and government to transform the international system of pandemic preparedness and response. Instead, it reads as a health resolution,” they add.

The Independent Panel has published a road map to deal with future pandemics, that sets out recommendations on governance, equitable access to pandemic countermeasures, preparedness and surge finance, the need for clear rules and roles, and for a stronger WHO.

“Only international, multilateral, and multi-sectoral collaboration can safeguard the world from the next pandemic threat,” according to the Independent Panel.

Pointing out that the success of the WHO negotiations currently underway to develop a pandemic accord is not guaranteed, Sirleaf and Clark reiterate their view that “sustained highest-level political leadership on pandemic preparedness and response” is essential between and during health crises. 

“This is required to ensure protection to health, societies and economies, and to stop outbreaks from becoming pandemics,” they add.

Describing the UN HLM as “a one-time and historic opportunity to commit to lasting and transformative change to pandemic preparedness and response”, they add that if member states “only tinker with the language” of the current draft, “the efforts to agree to the declaration will be wasted”.

Meanwhile, Nina Schwalbe, a principal visiting fellow at the UN University’s International Institute for Global Health, also expressed disappointment with the draft.

“Rather than a strong declaration that commits UN Member States at the highest level to fundamentally change how they address all aspects of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, it covers everything from hand hygiene to pollution,” commented Schwalbe on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/nschwalbe/status/1677334373954203651

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons.