Co-chairs of the IHR Working Group, Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Dr Abdullah Assiri, and vice chairs,
Co-chairs of the INB, Precious Matsoso and Roland Driece, and vice chairs,
Esteemed members of the Executive Board,
Our EB Chair, Dr Hanan,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Let me begin by welcoming you all to this briefing and thanking you for your commitment to strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Over the past two years, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body and the Working Group on Amendments to the IHR have been moving towards a common goal: to build a healthier, safer, and more equitable world.
This is our chance – maybe our only chance – to get this done, because we have the momentum.
When COVID-19 struck, we acted with urgency to respond. We found new ways of working together. We did this because we had to.
We need that same sense of urgency now. We must be bold, and we must be creative, to overcome hurdles, entrenched positions, and old ways of thinking.
This is the only way we can make the world safer for our children, and our children’s children – through working together.
Member States have committed to the historic task of delivering a pandemic agreement and a package of amendments to improve the International Health Regulations to the World Health Assembly in May of this year.
This is a generational opportunity that we must not miss.
After the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is watching, the stakes are high, and time is short. It is difficult to overstate the importance and urgency of this work.
If the international community misses this opportunity, it will be difficult to achieve the comprehensive reform we need, especially for equitable access to pandemic-related products.
What we need is a meaningful and impactful outcome to strengthen the international legal framework for strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
But if the final products do not change the status quo, and if they do not help to ensure collective security and equity, then we will have missed our chance to make history.
This work is not easy, and it is occurring in a very difficult environment.
The INB and the IHR working group are operating amid a torrent of fake news, lies, and conspiracy theories.
There are those who claim that the pandemic agreement and IHR will cede sovereignty to WHO and give the WHO Secretariat the power to impose lockdowns or vaccine mandates on countries. You know this is fake news, lies, and conspiracy theories.
These claims are completely false. You know that the agreement will give WHO no such powers, because you are writing it.
We cannot allow this historic agreement, this milestone in global health, to be sabotaged by those who spread lies, either deliberately or unknowingly.
We need your support to counter these lies, by speaking up at home and telling your citizens that this agreement and an amended IHR will not, and cannot, cede sovereignty to WHO and that it belongs to the Member States.
The reality is that you are safeguarding national sovereignty, while strengthening global health security. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. It’s not a zero-sum game.
The agreement is negotiated by countries, for countries, and will be implemented in countries, in accordance with your own national laws.
In fact, these processes have the potential to empower countries in critical ways.
They can help to ensure that countries have the systems, tools, capacities and infrastructure for effective, timely and equitable pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
This is not a choice between global health security and national or regional interests.
It is about working together towards a safer, healthier and more equitable world for all.
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
There are still important differences under discussion. And these are difficult discussions.
But it is crucial to remember that the differences are not about the goals, they are about the means to achieve those goals.
There is a way to reach consensus. It is up to Member States to be bold, to be creative, and to find the way forward. I believe you will.
As I said this morning, you will not reach consensus if everyone remains entrenched in their positions. It will take patience, courage, innovative thinking, and above all, compromise, and finding a middle ground.
To deliver on time, everyone will have to give something, or no one will get anything.
Special attention should be given to improving the capacity of all Member States to detect and share pathogens that present a pandemic risk;
And to putting in place mechanisms so that Member States have timely access to critical response products, such as diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
I reassure you of my support, and that of the Regional Directors and the entire Secretariat.
This is the generation that lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is the generation that must learn its painful lessons and protect the generations who will come after us.
I thank you.