WHO negotiators confident of a “good outcome” on agreement to prevent pandemics

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

Driece was speaking at a press conference, at a time when the ninth round of negotiations is taking place with a view to reaching this agreement with binding legal value by May 10, which will then be presented at the World Health Assembly, the highest decision-making body in the world. WHO, which meets at the end of this month.

At the basis of this agreement is the need to guarantee equity in access to the resources necessary to prevent pandemics – vaccines, personal protective equipment, specialized scientific information and knowledge -, but also access to healthcare at a global level.

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

In these types of negotiations, which last for around two years, “it is normal for everything to come together in the last few days”, said Roland Briece, adding that, if an understanding that results in an agreement is not possible, it will be up to the WHO’s highest body decides the next steps.

“We are still optimistic about a good result, but, if there is no consensus at the end of next week, it will be up to the World Health Assembly to decide what to do next”, he considered.

For Precious Matsoso, also co-chair of the negotiations, what is at stake is an “important process” to improve prevention and global response to future pandemics, but “no country will be forced into the agreement”.

It is about “negotiating the best possible solution that can make the world safer and fairer, in terms of access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, that can help prevent outbreaks from turning into pandemics”, he highlighted.

In an intervention addressed to the negotiators of the Member States in Geneva, the director general of the WHO highlighted that “there are still differences” between the countries involved in this process, but that they are now “much smaller than they were” in the last 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 in a position to adhere to a consensus, but they have a choice. They can choose not to block the consensus”, appealed the head of the organization.

The decision for an international convention with legal force comes in the wake of Covid-19 and was driven by the need to ensure that populations, governments and all sectors of society are better prepared and protected, in order to prevent and respond to future pandemics. .