Diversifying Revenue Sources; Two Dozen Stories: May-August [GHF WRAP]
Diversifying Revenue Sources; Two Dozen Stories: May-August [GHF WRAP]
The Four-Month Roundup from Geneva Health Files in 2023
Dear Readers,
At the cusp of autumn setting in here in Geneva, we bring you a snapshot of the busy summer it has been. In this edition, we bring you more than two dozen stories from us that were published between May and August. It shows the blistering pace of policy discussions in this town.
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We hope you enjoy this edition - a comprehensive compilation that includes both tracks of global health negotiations we have exclusively reported on this year. But not only. It also features our in-depth exclusives, interviews and contributions from global health experts from human rights, to health financing. My colleague Sana Ali brings this unmissable edition for you.
We are back with our policy intelligence work in the coming week. Watch out for more!
Best,
Priti
Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com or genevahealthfiles@protonmail.com; Follow us on Twitter: @filesgeneva
Highlights: May-Aug 2023:
Compiled by Sana Ali
News Flash
[June 23] WHO Medical Countermeasures Platform Takes Route from New York to Geneva
The Medical Countermeasures Platform that is being discussed by WHO and partners, has emerged clearly in the draft text of the Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, for the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting in September 2023.
In this edition we strive to bring you the voice of the member states - critical players who have asserted themselves in the midst of a dazzling constellation of actors that descended down on Geneva this week.
The United States allegedly threatened to withhold funding to WHO, unless its suggested language on “earmarking” contributions was agreed in the decision text on the replenishment proposal, according to sources who were a part of the deliberations around a new replenishment mechanism that will be discussed later this week by the World Health Assembly.
The new Medical Countermeasures Platform will be pitched to countries next week at the 76th World Health Assembly, as a part of the “HEPR” proposals by DG Tedros. (HEPR – Strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response and resilience).
[May 10] The Future of Multilateralism in Global Health
Treaty Talks
WHO member states began text-based negotiations of certain amendment proposals in their discussions at the fourth meeting of the Working Group set up to make targeted amendments to the IHR. Even as they made progress on some proposals, diplomats in Geneva indicated the need for greater trust to move the process ahead.
With a mere ten months away from the May 2024 deadline, where both these processes are expected to conclude and culminate in the adoption of new amendments to the IHR and a potentially new pandemic instrument, countries this week grappled with the basics such as what would legally constitute a pandemic, how it would be declared, what kind of actions would it trigger and most importantly, how would these elements sit across the two different, overlapping legal mechanisms.
[July 23] Formal Vs Informal Sessions: The Politics to Get Provisions In or Out?
The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body wrapped up its deliberations last week on July 21 - a process that saw member states completing a review of the Bureau’s text. The conclusion of the sixth meeting of the INB saw extensive discussions between countries on the way forward. The agreed text below reflects the tough negotiations on the process for progressing these discussions in informal sessions.
At the on-going sixth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body [July 17-21], countries resumed their consideration of the Bureau’s Text, in addition to working during informal sessions in the evenings this week as they continued to circle around the meat of the instrument including research and development, provisions on supply chain, and access and benefit sharing mechanisms.
With days to spare for the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) scheduled for July 17th-21st, countries continue to get bogged down by a convoluted process as they discuss substantive proposals on the text of the proposed instrument. While there is a realistic recognition on the difficulties and the challenge at hand, countries are also aware that crunch time has begun.
The negotiations on the pandemic accord took a decisive turn this week when the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body met to discuss the Bureau’s Text, where the thorniest of issues including on research and development, liability, access and benefit sharing, among others, were considered in detail.
The Zero draft on the Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, for the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting in September 2023 reflects many of the themes being discussed in the context of the pandemic accord and the amendments to the IHR, including financing of research and development, sustainability of supply chains, referring to the importance of local manufacturing, among other key areas.
The Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body set up to work towards a new Pandemic Accord has presented its version of a text building on the zero draft, and that, to an extent, draws on some of the newer suggestions provided by WHO member states. But in doing so, some say, the Bureau has had to make political choices in moving these sensitive negotiations forward.
The Files In-Depth
[May 17] A Watershed for WHO finances & governance? WHO Investment Rounds: A Replenishment Approach
A new replenishment mechanism for WHO will be considered by the 76th World Health Assembly convening on the 21st of May, here in Geneva. Such a proposal is mostly expected to be approved by WHO member states. This could be a watershed for WHO’s finances and for its governance.
In preparation for the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meetings taking place in September, the UN held multi-stakeholder hearings on key public health issues, including Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPPR).Speakers emphasized the connection between pandemic threats (such as COVID-19) and endemic threats (such as tuberculosis), both of which require countries to achieve universal health coverage.
Today we bring you an analysis on the US-ITC hearings on the extension of the TRIPS decision to COVID-19 tests and treatments. My colleague Alyssa Chetrick, has conducted this exclusive, painstaking analysis on these public hearings from March 2023 and what they reveal.
The Files Interviews
During the sidelines of the WG-IHR4, Geneva Health Files, spoke with Abdullah Asiri and Ashley Bloomfield, Co-Chairs of the WG-IHR talk about how they see these negotiations progressing. Countries have often described this track of global health negotiations as being efficient and streamlined.
[July 20] "It can’t be that a WHO Accord is silent on equity": INB Co-Chairs Matsoso & Driece
The INB bureau, that this duo lead, is the cynosure of crucial global health negotiations that bring together 194 member states of WHO in an attempt to agree on a unified set of rules to govern future health emergencies. In a free-flowing conversation, they articulate their concerns and perspectives on these discussions.
Peter Sands has been steering The Global Fund since 2017, continues to bring much-needed clarity to global health policy-making and to address the intractable challenges of deep-rooted diseases. The Global Fund invests US$4 billion a year to fight HIV, TB and malaria, and raised US$ 15+ billion in 2022 in its last round of replenishment.
Why did the disciplines of finance and health evolve separately? Is debt relief a valid policy measure to raise resources? Why is it important to have a global tax body and a global multilateral tax treaty? In an expansive interview, Attiya Waris, UN Independent Expert on foreign debt, other international financial obligations and human rights, tackles these questions head on with characteristic candor.
In an interview, global health experts Achal Prabhala and Vitor Ido talk about the evidence and promise of the Cuban biotech industry, and what this could mean for equitable access of countermeasures in health emergencies. Economic, trade, regulatory, geopolitical and diplomatic hurdles have constrained the access to Cuban-made medical products. Can this be fixed? Read on.
GHF Fellows
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the discussions in Brussels and Geneva, on ways to prevent, prepare and respond to health emergencies, now have more in common than ever before. In this article we try to see some areas where policy discussions seem to converge, those where they do not.
[Aug 23] A moment of reckoning? Confronting racial-colonial legacies in the wake of global health emergencies
In this searing essay, she contextualizes the inequities witnessed during the pandemic of COVID-19 in the historical injustices that worsened the implications of the health emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the inequities in our global structures, and how we handled vaccine distribution is symptomatic of the invisible colonial, racial and imperial logics that govern us still today.
Guest Essays
[Aug 9] Common but Differentiated Responsibilities: The Equity Principle Guiding Climate Change, and the Reforms for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness & Response Yassen Tcholakov
This article will strive to describe the origins and meaning of CBDR and describe how it is being currently being brought up in discussions related to pandemic reforms looking at both the INB and the WG-IHR. Parallels will be drawn between how the concept is implemented in environmental policies and how it could be implemented in global health policy with an effort to highlight the nuances and complexities involved in translating this principle from one context to another.
[June 28] Independent Assessment & Governance Committees: Addressing Accountability and Governance in a Pandemic Accord By the Panel for a Global Public Health Convention
Even after the World Health Organization ended the COVID-19 public health emergency of international concern on 10 May 2023, the world is still far from ready to prevent and respond to future global health threats. Cracks identified in our international system back in 2020 continue to undermine preparedness today. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, tasked with filling these cracks at the global level by crafting a pandemic accord or treaty, has released the Draft Bureau’s text of the WHO CA+. While the text covers a lot of ground – from surveillance and report to equity and “One Health” – that will improve pandemic preparedness and response, there are critical aspects conspicuously absent.
Leah Shipton, who works at the intersection of public health and political science, has authored this essay, distilling the past into an insightful analysis relevant for current global health negotiations, while also noting how the nature of the beast has changed over the years.
[June 7] Human Rights Challenges in the Pandemic Treaty Negotiations
This essay highlights key revisions necessary to strengthen the Pandemic Treaty to further the (1) right to health, (2) human rights-based approach to health, (3) permissibility of human rights restrictions in public health responses, and (4) imperative for international assistance and global solidarity – providing a human rights foundation for civil society advocacy and Member State negotiations.
Podcasts
[Aug 16] Amendments to the International Health Regulations: Voices from the Negotiations
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