GENEVA (AN) — An executive board of 34 member nations began setting the agenda for the next annual meeting of the U.N. health agency's governing body, delving into dozens of high-stakes issues ranging from public health spending to a global accord for pandemic preparedness.
The World Health Organization's executive board, which represents six geographic regions, started a six-day meeting on Monday in Geneva, with a provisional agenda of 30 items, including reports, strategies and finances.
The past year marked the end of COVID-19 and mpox as global health emergencies, WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted in his opening remarks, but it was also a year to mourn due to conflicts, disasters and preventable diseases and deaths.
Among his top priorities, he said, are following through on the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly's commitment to conclude talks over a pandemic accord and amendments to the International Health Regulations.
Running out of negotiating time
The negotiating text of the global pandemic treaty, which is overseen by WHO's Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, reaffirms nations' sovereignty and promotes equity and right to health as guiding principles.
Its goal is to prevent a repeat of the loss of millions of lives and livelihoods, along with the economic shocks and social inequities of the pandemic.
Negotiators proposed letting WHO hand out a fifth of all the vaccines and other products the world needs and easing intellectual property restrictions to provide more equitable access to vaccines and therapies. The pharmaceutical industry and some nations oppose those ideas.
A draft accord is expected to be submitted for approval in May by WHO's ultimate decision-making body, the 194-nation World Health Assembly. Governments also have been negotiating amendments to the IHR, which provide legally binding rights and obligations towards disease outbreaks and other acute public health risks, and touch on the pandemic.
"I am gravely concerned that member states may not meet that commitment. Time is very short, and there are several outstanding issues that remain to be resolved," Tedros said, without elaborating.
"Failure to deliver the pandemic agreement and the IHR amendments will be a missed opportunity for which future generations may not forgive us," he said. "It will take courage, and it will take compromise. You will not reach consensus if everyone remains entrenched in their positions."
