The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday its member states had reached an agreement on preparing for and responding to future pandemics after more than three years of negotiations.<\/p>\n
With negotiations having launched in 2021, WHO member states have compiled a draft agreement for consideration at the upcoming World Health Assembly next month. <\/p>\n
The proposal includes establishing a pathogen access and benefit-sharing system, building geographically diverse research and development capacities, facilitating the transfer of technology and related knowledge, and establishing a global supply chain and logistics network, among other measures.<\/p>\n
“In reaching consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, not only did they put in place a generational accord to make the world safer, they have also demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well, and that in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground, and a shared response to shared threats,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“I thank WHO’s Member States, and their negotiating teams, for their foresight, commitment and tireless work. We look forward to the World Health Assembly’s consideration of the agreement and \u2014 we hope \u2014 its adoption,” he added.<\/p>\n
The proposal affirms the individual sovereignty of member states and does not give the WHO any authority to “direct, order, alter or prescribe national laws or policies, or mandate States to take specific actions.”<\/p>\n