WHO Member States conclude negotiations and make significant progress on draft pandemic agreement

After more than three years of intensive negotiations, WHO Member States took a major step forward in efforts to make the world safer from pandemics, by forging a draft agreement for consideration at the upcoming World Health Assembly in May.

The proposal aims to strengthen global collaboration on prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemic threats.In December 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO Member States established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB)to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument, under the WHO Constitution, to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

Following 13 formal rounds of meetings, nine of which were extended, and many informal and intersessional negotiations on various aspects of the draft agreement, the INB today finalized a proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement.

The outcome of the INB’s work will now be presented to the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly for its consideration."The nations of the world made history in Geneva today," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "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.