UN to host High-level meetings on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. (HLMPPPR)

UN to host High-level meetings on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. (HLMPPPR)

The increasing role of Global Health in Foreign Policy

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The?76th?UN General Assembly (2022) passed a resolution on elevating pandemic prevention, preparedness and response to the highest foreign policy and political leadership level. The resolution advanced the pandemic prevention, preparedness and response to the highest level of political leadership around the UN member countries.

The resolution "—decides to hold a one-day high-level meeting of the General Assembly in collaboration with the World Health Organization, and at the level of Heads of State and Government and?to adopt a succinct political declaration aimed at, among other things, mobilising political will at the national, regional, and international levels,"?(UNGA 76)

Health is increasingly becoming essential to foreign policy, security policy, development strategies, and global and bilateral trade agreements. Many health challenges cannot be resolved solely on a?national, technical level; they necessitate political negotiations and solutions, often involving diverse actors, beyond national boundaries. Global health diplomacy focuses on health issues that require the multilateral cooperation of many countries to address common concerns, but health diplomacy can also play an essential role at the regional, bilateral, and national levels and build peace. UN bodies are playing a critical role as a conduit of health diplomacy.

One of the positive outcomes of the global Covid19 pandemic is that health has firmly found a place in the foreign policy discourse and actions at the?Intergovernmental level. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of developing trans-disciplinary, multidimensional partnerships and investing in locally and globally systems to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

The COVID-19 pandemic also made us realise that no country can address a?pandemic alone. A?multilateral and multi-sectorial global collaboration is essential for a proactive pandemic response.

The resolution emphasises the importance of increased international cooperation in supporting Member States' efforts to achieve health goals, including the goal of achieving universal health coverage, which includes protection from catastrophic health- finance risk,?access to essential healthcare services, and access to safe, effective, high-quality, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

The United Nations General Assembly (2020) called for the first-ever International Day of Epidemic Preparedness on December 27, 2020, to emphasise the importance of epidemic prevention, preparedness, and collaboration.

The World Health Organization's Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (WHO 2021) and the United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19 (UN 2020) both acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has a disproportionately heavy impact on the poor and most vulnerable. As a result, there are ramifications for health and development gains, particularly in low-income, middle-income, and developing countries. Covid19 has hampered the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage, obstructing the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals related to health and wellbeing and universal health coverage.

The negative health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic include hunger and malnutrition, increased violence against women, children, and frontline health workers, and disruptions in the care of older persons and persons with disabilities. Moreover, the health impact of Covid19 reflects beyond the national boundaries.

COVID-19 pandemic has revealed serious shortcomings at the country, regional and global levels in preparedness, timely and effective prevention and detection. COVID-19 also has revealed severe shortcomings in response to potential health emergencies and the capacity and resilience of health systems,?indicating the need to better prepare for global health emergencies.

As a result, the World Health Assembly decided to hold a special session (74/16 of May 31, 2021) to consider developing a global health convention, agreement, or another international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response. Furthermore, WHO launched an intergovernmental process to make targeted changes to the International Health Regulations (2005).

Health is a precondition, outcome, and indicator of all three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social, and environmental). Nonetheless, despite progress, global health challenges remain, including significant inequities and vulnerabilities within and among countries, regions, and populations, and necessitate constant and urgent global attention.

The global community has recognised that the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most significant global challenges in the history of the United Nations. The United Nations' decision to host a Pandemic Summit recognises the impact of the pandemic on health and wellbeing, increased mortality levels, and mental health. This challenge includes impact on livelihoods, food security and nutrition, education, the exacerbation of poverty and hunger, and disruption to economies, trade, and the environment.

In addition, the pandemic has exacerbated economic and social inequalities within and among countries, reversing hard-won development gains and hampering progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and all its Goals and targets.

The world community has also woken up to the lack of an institutional mechanism to deal with the outcomes and impact of the potential of future outbreaks of diseases or other global health threats equally. The world community similarly realised the possibility of multiple shocks with more devastating consequences than those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The simultaneous multiple shocks could be in the form of an environmental crisis and an uncontrollable pandemic.

Therefore, prevention and preparation for future health threats are of utmost importance and support efforts toward attaining universal health coverage as an essential goal accepted by the global community.

Preventing future global health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic calls for continued leadership, multilateral commitment, collaboration and institutional mechanisms among the Member States and other relevant international organisations.

The international community must explore the mechanisms to implement robust global, regional, national and local responses, underscoring that the pandemic has shown the critical importance of a whole-of-society response to address its direct and indirect consequences. In addition, the global community must acknowledge and reaffirm the critical leadership of the World Health Organisation on global health matters within the broader United Nations response.

The preventive and effective response is possible only by sharing experience and best practices and by raising the level of preparedness, including early warning systems, into the earliest and most adequate response to any epidemic that may arise.

The UN General Assembly further calls on the Member States to encourage research, innovation, and voluntary licencing commitments, where possible, in agreements where public funding has been invested in research and development for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, to strengthen local and regional capacities for the manufacturing, regulation, and procurement of needed tools for equitable and effective access to pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.

An internationally accredited 'One Health' approach fosters cooperation between health, animal health and plant health, as well as environmental and other relevant sectors, which is the essential principle which should guide the global response.

There is a need for increased international coordination on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, as well as support for the Geneva process on a WHO convention, agreement, or pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator,?launched by WHO, the President of France, the European Commission, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at the end of April 2020, is a global collaborative effort to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines (WHO 2021). The ACT Accelerator is a powerful and trilateral tool for delivering vaccines equitably via the COVAX pillar. It also addresses therapeutic and diagnostic access, the critical aspects of health system strengthening and country readiness.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT) brings together governments, scientists, businesses, civil society, philanthropists, and agencies such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CEPI, FIND, Gavi, The Global Fund, Unitaid, Wellcome, the WHO, and the World Bank. These organisations have joined forces to hasten the end of the pandemic by assisting in the development and equitable distribution of tests, treatments, and vaccines.

However, the success of ACT Aceeleator in ensuring vaccine equity is disappointing.

The proposed pandemic treaty should recognise the detrimental effects of COVID-19 on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Gender equality is a prerequisite for preventing and preparing against pandemics.

While disease outbreaks and other acute public health risks are often unpredictable and require a range of responses, the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) provide an overarching legal framework that defines countries' rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential cross border impact. The IHR is an international law instrument binding 196 countries, including the 194 WHO the Member States.

The proposed UN summit on the pandemic is in the background of the WHO Member States currently debating a significant legal framework outlining global health security.

In December 2021, the World Health Organization's 194 Member States agreed to begin drafting and negotiating a convention under the World Health Organization's Constitution to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (often referred to as a proposed 'pandemic treaty').

The intergovernmental negotiating body in charge of drafting the agreement met for the first time on February 24, 2022, and has begun holding public hearings to inform its deliberations. This body will present a progress report to the 76th World Health Assembly to reach an agreement by 2024. Member States will be required to implement the deal nationally by their respective constitutional processes if adopted.

In the background of the proposed Pandemic summit, there is also?an agreement on setting up another High-Level Meeting on another global health crisis, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

The UN Assembly's decision to hold a pandemic summit in Sept 2023 has raised Global Health to the Highest level of foreign policy discourse. The head of state will add political weight to pandemic preparedness and health equity. But, it is?vital to reinforce, not conflict with, the WHO effort to bring in a global pandemic and ensure accelerating the goal of Universal access to health care

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The resolution was sponsored by the 12 members of the Core Group of the Global Health and Foreign Policy Initiative;?Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Costa Rica, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Africa, Sweden, and Vietnam.

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Reference:

UNGA (2022) The Resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly (76/257 of March 29, 2022) elevates pandemic prevention, preparedness and response to the highest level of political leadership. https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/N22/444/95/PDF/N2244495.pdf?OpenElement

WHO (2022) Case for investing in the ACT-Accelerator in 2022. December 9 2021. https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator

WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY?(2020) Covid-19 response. WHA73.1. Agenda item 3 May 19 2020. The Seventy-third World Health Assembly. https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA73/A73_R1-en.pdf

WHO (2021) 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV): Strategic preparedness and response plan. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/strategic-preparedness-and-response-plan-for-the-new-coronavirus

UNGA (2021)?76th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76) 14-27 SEPTEMBER 2021. https://sdg.iisd.org/events/76th-session-of-the-un-general-assembly-unga-76/

UN (2020) GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE PLAN COVID-19. UNITED NATIONS COORDINATED APPEAL. APRIL – DECEMBER 2020 https://www.un.org/development/desa/ageing/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2020/05/GHRP-COVID19_May_Update.pdf