A Turning Point? The EU & the U.S. Draw Out Four African Countries to Bridge Positions on Pathogen Access & Benefit Sharing

Newsletter Edition #87 [Treaty Talks]

Hi,

In this edition, we bring you a developing story. Efforts are on to forge greater consensus on Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing - a key provision in a new Pandemic Agreement - albeit only among a select group of countries.

At an informal meeting late on Friday night, the U.S. and the EU, reportedly met with four African countries to discuss PABS.

We tracked this story over the weekend to understand potential implications for the wider process and spoke with diplomats.

We are keeping a close watch on how negotiations will evolve in what appears to be the final week for these decisive discussions at WHO.

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Our gratitude to our subscribers who help us stay in the game!

Best,

Priti

Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com. Follow us on X: @filesgeneva

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Illustration Credit: Amy Clarke, Chembe Collaborative

I. EXCLUSIVE: PANDEMIC AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS

A Turning Point? The EU & the U.S. Draw Out Four African Countries to Bridge Positions on Pathogen Access & Benefit Sharing

By Priti Patnaik

Nishant Sirohi contributed to this story

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Hosts to the biggest pharmaceutical companies, the European Union and the U.S., drew four African countries into an exclusive closed-door informal meeting on May 3, in a bid to bridge positions on the proposed mechanism on Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing [PABS] – a cornerstone to the new Pandemic Agreement under negotiation at World Health Organization, diplomatic sources and experts familiar with the development said.

The African countries invited to the meeting reportedly include Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa. Sources said that this was an invitation-only meeting, suggesting that not  all countries were aware of it, and were not a part of such a meeting that took place along the sidelines of the on-going meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body currently underway till May 10^th.  

(By the time this story went to print, no responses were received to our queries sent on Sunday evening to all five countries and the EU, seeking more information on the meeting. We will update this story if we receive any responses subsequently.)

We reported last week that the EU was engaging with the Africa Group on the toughest issues in these negotiations including on technology transfer, One Health, PABS and financing.

The intervening weekend during May 4^th and 5^th, also saw a pan-African Ministerial meeting to clarify positions on some sticking points in the Pandemic Agreements talks, multiple sources told us.  

In this story, we look at fast evolving behind-the-scenes dynamics on the PABS informal meeting and on the wider discussions within the Africa Group – a decisive actor in these negotiations. We also review a proposal put forward by the EU and the US that was presented to the African countries.

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Image Credit: Photo by Steve Johnson, Pexels