The window of opportunity for ending this pandemic and preventing the next is closing rapidly

https://www.gpmb.org/news/news/item/25-10-2021-the-window-of-opportunity...

Berlin, 26 October 2021. The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) - the international body responsible for assessing the state of the world’s preparedness for pandemics and other health emergencies - issues a stark warning today to global leaders in its 2021 Report, launched at the World Health Summit in Berlin. It says that the world has neither the capacity to end the COVID-19 pandemic in the near future nor to prevent the next one, without a coherent and concerted effort to reform the health emergency ecosystem.

• It says that the current health emergency ecosystem reflects a broken world, defined by inequality, division, and a lack of accountability.
• Without major global health reforms, the world will not have the capacity to end COVID-19 pandemic, nor prevent the next one.
• It warns that the window of opportunity to make meaningful change is closing fast as the world’s attention turns to other issues.
• The GPMB has prioritised six solutions which require bold, coherent, and collaborative action, breaking through political barriers and economic divides between the haves and the have-nots.
• These solutions must be designed to be equitable and mutually dependent.
• The GPMB is concerned that current processes to reform the health emergency ecosystem will perpetuate the existing fragmentation. Efforts are poorly coordinated and many of the countries and stakeholders tasked with implementation are excluded from these discussions.
• The GPMB highlights the immediate next steps that will demonstrate leaders have the commitment and intent to make real and lasting change.

Elhadj As Sy, GPMB co-chair, says: “If the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was defined by a collective failure to take preparedness seriously and act rapidly on the basis of science, the second has been marked by profound inequalities and a failure of leaders to understand our interconnectedness and act accordingly. What will the third year bring?”

In its report, From Worlds Apart to a World Prepared, the GPMB urges leaders to take political responsibility for a widespread transformation of the health emergency ecosystem, and to take a series of immediate actions to demonstrate their commitment and intent. The window of opportunity for reform is closing fast as the impact of the pandemic eases in some countries and the world’s attention moves elsewhere.

The GPMB shares its deep concern that COVID-19 has exposed a broken and divided world in which access to vaccines depends on ability to pay rather than need; where governments, leaders and institutions are too often unaccountable to their populations; and in which societies are fragmented, nationalism is growing, and geopolitical tensions are rising.

The lack of global equity is also caused by longstanding systemic inequities in the global health emergency ecosystem and the broader international system. There is a fundamental misunderstanding of global solidarity as being equivalent to goodwill and aid, rather than equity and common interest. Rich countries continue to offer aid via donations of medical countermeasures rather than supporting manufacturing capabilities, technology transfers, and fairer intellectual property provisions.

Hundreds of expert recommendations have been made over the last two decades to reform the global response to health emergencies, but the level of ambition and action has failed to match the global need. Political accountability and leadership are sorely lacking. The inadequacies start at the top. The UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, World Health Assembly, G7 leaders, and G20 leaders among others, have met over the last year, but with little to show for it other than declarations of intent, with limited evidence that they had a significant impact on the trajectory of the pandemic.

According to the GPMB, six critical solutions are needed for a safer world:

1. Strengthen global governance, adopt an international agreement on health emergency preparedness and response, and convene a Summit of Heads of State and Government, together with other stakeholders, on health emergency preparedness and response.
2. Build a strong WHO with greater resources, authority, and accountability.
3. Create an agile health emergency system that can deliver on equity through better information sharing, and an end-to-end mechanism for research, development and equitable access to common goods.
4. Establish a collective financing mechanism for preparedness to ensure more sustainable, predictable, flexible, and scalable financing.
5. Empower communities and ensure engagement of civil society and the private sector. 
6. Strengthen independent monitoring and mutual accountability.

Momentum is building around the need for stronger governance, effective systems, and sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness and response. Current processes to reform the health emergency ecosystem, such as the working groups established by the World Health Assembly, the G20 under the leadership of the Italian presidency, and a consortium of countries and international organizations and institutions led by the USA and Norway, need to ensure they include the countries, communities, and sectors that are expected to contribute to and benefit from these solutions in their discussions.

But there is hope, and leaders must not allow the current momentum for change to go to waste. To move forward, the Board calls for the following immediate actions to be taken by the end of this year:

• WHO Member States agree at the November 2021 Special Session of the World Health Assembly on the need to adopt an international agreement and establish a process for taking forward negotiations. This process should ensure active participation of relevant sectors and stakeholders.
• The UN General Assembly agrees to convene a Summit of Heads of State and Government, together with other stakeholders, and set in motion a preparatory process.
• The WHO Working Group on Sustainable Financing agrees to a significant increase in the WHO assessed contributions, in order to adequately and sustainably finance the Organization’s essential functions and core capacities.
• Current discussions to establish a new Financial Intermediary Fund conclude successfully, in consultation with governments, civil society, private stakeholders, the World Bank, WHO, implementing agencies and others at global and regional levels.
• Taking stock of lessons from the review of ACT-A, WHO Member States, in consultation with ACT-A partners and other stakeholders, should develop terms of reference for the design of an end-to-end mechanism for research, development and equitable access to common goods This should involve consultation with a wide range of stakeholders from civil society and the private sector.

Elhadj As Sy, GPMB co-chair says:  “It is easy to be cynical and think that nothing can change, that inequality, inaction, and division are unavoidable, that the models of the past cannot be exchanged for better ways of working together that benefit all, that we are forever condemned to repeat this cycle of panic and neglect. But we must reject pessimism, recognize our common humanity and growing interdependence, and create a global health ecosystem that serves everyone. Together we must move from worlds apart to a world prepared.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board is an independent monitoring and accountability body to ensure preparedness for global health crises. It was co-convened by the Director-General of the World Health Organization and the President of the World Bank Group in 2018.
2. Board members are Elhadj As Sy (co-chair), Dr Victor Dzau, Dr Chris Elias, Sir Jeremy Farrar, Henrietta Fore, Dr George Gao, Professor Ilona Kickbusch, Dr Daniel Ngamije, H.E. Veronika Skvortsova, Dr Yasuhiro Suzuki, Dr Jeanette Vega Morales, and Professor VijayRaghavan.
3. The 2021 Report, From Worlds Apart to a World Prepared, is being launched at the World Health Summit in Berlin on 26 October at 09:00 CET. To watch the event live, please click on the event link on the WHS website: www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/WHS2021
4. The report will be available to download on the GPMB website on 26 October from 09:00 CET: https://www.gpmb.org/annual-reports