If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, it’s that we weren’t ready for it. If there’s another hard lesson we learned, it’s that getting everyone to agree on how to respond to a pandemic was seemingly impossible. The lead-up to the World Health Assembly this week has been a sobering reminder of just how impossible it still is.
Also in today’s edition: The farm bill wending its way through the U.S. Congress takes a whack at global hunger — but not in the way development advocates had hoped.
WHA-t is going on?
This week was supposed to be about learning from the mistakes of the past. Instead, as the 194 member states of the World Health Organization gather in Geneva for the 77th World Health Assembly, we may be repeating them.
After two years of painstaking, fractious negotiations, countries on Friday failed to agree on a draft pandemic treaty that they’d hoped to adopt at WHA77. That means efforts to prepare for the next inevitable pandemic, save lives, and ensure a more equitable playing field have, at least for now, stalled.
But there was a tinge of positivity amid the gloom as some negotiators said they remain committed to getting a deal done, my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo tells me.
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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who asked member states to give the negotiations “one last big push,” said they did their best and should have no regrets. Instead, he urged countries to use WHA as an opportunity to “reenergize.”
“We will try everything believing that anything is possible and make this happen because the world still needs a pandemic treaty,” he said, adding that he doesn’t see the outcome as failure.
The question now is what happens next. According to a WHO news release, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body will present the outcome of the yearslong process to the assembly on Tuesday afternoon to decide next steps. But it’s unclear what the options are at this stage. There were talks to continue negotiations during WHA, or extend them for several months to a year, according to a report by Health Policy Watch.
Spark Street Advisors CEO Nina Schwalbe, who’s followed the negotiations closely, said in a post on the social platform X that the assembly could also decide to end the process. If that happens, the past two years go down the drain while the world remains vulnerable to the next pandemic.
+ For on-the-ground updates from WHA77, follow my colleagues Rumbi Chakamba, Jenny Lei Ravelo, and Sara Jerving on X.
Devex will be keeping you up to date all week with special edition podcasts, newsletters, and our Devex CheckUp @ WHA 77 summit on May 28 and 29. Last chance to register to join us in person or online for exclusive interviews, takeaways, and analysis.
The rest of the agenda
It remains to be seen how countries’ failure to agree on a pandemic treaty last week plays out at WHA77, but there will still be plenty to discuss and debate.
Under the banner of “All for Health, Health for All,” WHA77 will cover a range of topics, including universal health coverage, influenza preparedness, live wild animal markets, and the impact of climate change on health.
The International Health Regulations will be one closely watched area. An internationally binding agreement, IHR defines countries’ rights and obligations during public health emergencies. The IHR working group has concluded most of its work, with the vast majority of articles having been agreed on — in principle, that is.
WHO will also launch its investment round at this year’s WHA, as it looks to secure around $7.1 billion to cover its base budget for the period 2025-2028.
For more on what to expect, check out the detailed guide Rumbi put together.
Read: 5 issues to watch at the 77th World Health Assembly (Pro)
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Eyes on November
For some, a two-year timeline to wrap up a pandemic treaty always felt rushed given all the intricacies involved, but negotiators were also up against an invisible deadline: The U.S. elections in November, when Donald Trump could come to power, and yank the U.S. out of WHO.
For current U.S.President Joe Biden, he certainly would’ve faced fierce political headwinds if he signed onto a pandemic treaty that conspiracy theorists stubbornly believe infringes on U.S. sovereignty — for the umpteenth time, it won’t.
Javier Guzman, the director of global health policy and a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, says that while the White House has to weigh political realities, “it should consider three key policy options to secure global pandemic preparedness and response, or PPR, efforts,” he writes in a Devex opinion piece.
This includes championing the Pandemic Fund and supporting Day Zero Financing, among other initiatives.
He also writes that given the political pushback and “the likelihood that further negotiation will be required post-election … the Biden-Harris administration should emphasize the need for the World Health Organization to stick to its role as a normative, technical, standard-setting body, rather than become the secretariat of the agreement or the entity responsible for coordinating all the financing of PPR efforts.”
Opinion: Protecting pandemic preparedness efforts in a US election year
Related: What does the US general election mean for aid? (Pro)
+ Javier Guzman will join Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s minister of health, for tomorrow’s panel — A new era at Gavi: Ensuring the organization remains fit-for-purpose. It is part of Devex CheckUp @ WHA 77 in Geneva. Register to join the discussion.
Don’t bet the farm on it
Despite the hefty price tag of the farm bill that just passed the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee — an eye-popping $1.5 trillion — the legislation wouldn’t boost food aid abroad at a time when hunger is at record highs. Rather, it would strip 2.3 million people around the world of food assistance.
It’s also laden with new restrictions, reduced flexibility, and additional earmarks on nutritional programming that aid groups warn will leave low-income countries at the mercy of shocks.
“Its provisions would effectively end our work to address the root causes of global hunger and malnutrition and seriously compromise humanitarian food aid programs,” wrote Catholic Relief Services, CARE, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and World Vision in a statement released last week. “At a time of rising hunger and malnutrition, this is unacceptable.”
But it’s not a done deal, as my colleague Elissa Miolene reports. The bill must still make it out of the full House and then be reconciled with a Senate version — which the development community prefers — before heading to the president’s desk.
If what’s past is prologue, that process could get ugly, with no guarantee of success. The bill that passed the House Agriculture Committee, for example, only did so after a grueling 13 hours of debate that was at times both chaotic and partisan — exposing deep divides in how Republicans and Democrats view agricultural policy.
The bill also stalled out for months on Capitol Hill for the same reason: Although it is supposed to be reauthorized every five years, lawmakers failed to do so in 2023, and the existing legislation was extended until this September.
Read: US House advances farm bill that could strip food aid from 2.3 million
+ I had the chance to dig into the farm bill with David Barth, vice president of international programs for Save the Children, and my colleague Adva Saldinger for the This Week in Global Development podcast. Listen to the episode.
In other news
According to a Papua New Guinea government official more than 2,000 people are feared dead after being buried following a massive landslide Friday. [AP News]
More than 130 people have died at a single hospital amid intensified fighting in El Fasher, Sudan, where hospitals struggle under the number of casualties. [BBC]
Some 200 aid trucks began rolling into Gaza Sunday via the Kerem Shalom crossing under a new agreement with Egypt to bypass Rafah. [DW]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
