Geneva: Two years of talks aimed at reaching a crucial global deal to manage future pandemics failed to reach an agreement on Thursday and will make a push late next month.
Countries affected by Covid-19, which has devastated economies, developed communities, paralyzed health systems and killed millions of people, are pushing for international agreements on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
But while they generally agree on what to do during the next pandemic, people still disagree about how ready they are to turn those ideas into binding commitments.
The ninth round of finals and two weeks ended without progress on Thursday.
“You are not far from an agreement,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told countries as talks wrapped up at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
- A Call to Courage –
Since the pandemic can strike at any time, the plan is to finalize the agreement at the talks for ratification by the 194 WHO member states at their annual meeting starting on May 27.
Instead, fresh interviews will be held between April 29 and May 10.
The Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, which is conducting the negotiations, will prepare a new text no later than April 18 and will work to conclude the negotiations by May 5.
The current draft has been increased from 30 pages to 100 with suggested changes. Some participants wanted the INB shortened to 20 pages.
“It’s too long,” said one Western diplomat.
“It’s very detailed and very broad. It’s impossible to agree on 30 pages with this level of uncertainty in such a short period of time.”
Campaign groups have warned that pressure to reach a deal could make water less safe than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
KM Gopakumar, a senior researcher at the NGO Third World Network, told AFP that the new text was likely to be a lighter document that could be added at a later date.
“They went from a full agreement to a shorter document,” he said at WHO headquarters.
“From now on it’s a face-saving exercise because they want everything done by May.
- point of contention –
Major challenges include common approaches to emerging pathogens, disease outbreak prevention and control, secure financing, and pandemic response technology transfer to poor countries.
The conversation eventually focused on the balance between rich countries and poor countries.
Rich countries want to share important information about new and emerging pathogens with pandemic potential, as well as a strong and expensive preparedness commitment for all countries. Instead, developing countries want technology transfer and fair access to vaccines, tests and treatments.
