WHO member states agree to share outcomes of historic IHR, pandemic consensus process with World Health Assembly

WHO member states have concluded intensive negotiations aimed at strengthening global capacity to respond to future pandemics and outbreaks after the COVID-19 pandemic and have agreed to submit the results of their work for consideration at the upcoming World Health Assembly, which begins on Monday.

Two parallel negotiation processes were undertaken to make a series of amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) and to produce the first pandemic agreement, convention or other legal instrument.

Delegations to the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, which runs from 27 May to 1 June, will consider the outcomes of both processes and the next steps for them.

“Over the past two years, WHO Member States have made enormous efforts to respond to this challenge posed by COVID-19 and to respond to the losses it has caused, including at least 7 million lives lost,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO. In general. “Covid-19 has affected everyone, in many ways, and that is why member states have begun the process of creating a pandemic agreement so that the world is better prepared for the next pandemic. Although great progress has been made during these negotiations, there are still challenges to be overcome. We must use the World Health Assembly to re-energize us and complete the work ahead of us, which is to present to the world a generational agreement on the pandemic.”

The countries have completed their continued 9th today^th meeting Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) which consists of 194 WHO member states. INB reached an initial agreement on several elements of the draft agreement, and convergence on the others. There were also areas of non-convergence and differing views.

The Bureau of the INB, which led the process, will present a report in which more than two years of work on the process and the outcome of that work will be presented, which is the draft of the text that has been negotiated to date. Options for next steps to conclude the agreement process will also be put up for consideration by the WHA.

The Co-Chair of the Office, Mr. Roland Driece of the Netherlands, said that WHO Member States remain committed to completing the Pandemic Agreement process and that he looks forward to the World Health Assembly reviewing the progress made on this important initiative.

“It is clear that there is agreement among governments that the world must create a new approach to combating pandemics,” said Mr Driece. “The next steps in this important process will now be led by the World Health Assembly.”

The co-chair, Ms. Precious Matsoso, from South Africa, added that there is still a quest to build a generational, equitable agreement to prepare, prevent and respond to pandemics. “The world must not take its focus off the job at hand, which is to better protect the world from the next pandemic. This will require continued commitment and action by all parties to build a global collective defense.”

The Working Group on IHR Amendments (WGIHR). it will also present its output to the WHA for consideration, including some provisions for which agreement in principle has been reached and others for which the WGIHR Office has updated its proposed text for consideration by Member States.

The IHR, first adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1969 and last revised in 2005, was designed to maximize collective efforts to manage public health events while at the same time minimizing their disruption to travel and trade. They have 196 States Parties, including all 194 WHO Member States plus Liechtenstein and the Holy See. These parties led the process of amending the IHR through the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) (WGIHR). Today marked the end of the continued session of the eighth WGIHR meeting.