What you need to know from the 75th World Health Assembly.
Today we’re also asking what Davos is doing about the global food security crisis, and looking at what African energy entrepreneurs need in the continent’s “just transition.”
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Devex hosted a wide-ranging discussion Wednesday on reimagining global health security at the World Health Assembly. My colleagues — in Geneva and around the world — have the biggest takeaways:
• A tentative World Trade Organization agreement on intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 vaccines might not actually reflect the positions of some of the governments that are negotiating it.
Read: Can a 'watered-down' TRIPS waiver still matter?
• “Countries depended on each other out of goodwill ... Unfortunately, they were duped,” said Dr. Githinji Gitahi of Amref Health Africa. What will it take to change the balance of power between lower-income countries and pharmaceutical companies?
Read: 'Goodwill is not enough' to achieve vaccine equity, experts say
• WHA approved a report from the Working Group on Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies, taking one step forward in global efforts to create a new instrument for pandemic preparedness and response.
Read: WHA votes to strengthen health emergencies preparedness and response
• Atul Gawande, assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Global Health, said that in addition to mobilizing humanitarian response for Ukraine, the agency also pivoted to a rapid response for health systems: “I'm increasingly convinced this is a different kind of skill set from what ordinary humanitarian assistance requires.”
Read: Atul Gawande on USAID's rapid health response in Ukraine
• The U.S. government has some proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations — and it wants to see progress toward adopting them this week, said Loyce Pace, assistant secretary for global affairs at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Read: US seeks progress on International Health Regulations amendments
• Experts in the “One Health” approach — which entails integrating the health of humans with that of the environment, plants, and animals — saw monkeypox coming. But to prevent such health threats, “we need to develop and strengthen a more coordinated surveillance system,” said Dr. Yewande Alimi, a program coordinator at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read: How 'One Health' seeks to disrupt the 'cycle of panic and neglect' (Pro)
+ Join us on June 9 for a Devex Pro Live event Beyond NextGen: Solving the challenges of health supply chains. Pro subscribers can register here. If you’re not a Pro subscriber yet, you can sign up for a free trial to join.
Davos diplomacy
What are the movers and shakers at Davos doing about the global food security crisis? That’s one question my colleague Adva Saldinger has been asking. This is what she’s hearing:
The Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports is preventing tens of millions of tons of wheat from being exported. Ukraine is willing, in principle, to agree to a safe passage corridor to ship wheat from the port of Odesa — but there is a key issue: trust with Russia, said Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Davos on Wednesday.
Ukraine is working with the United Nations to address its security concerns; namely that Russia would agree to and then violate an agreement by entering the port with military vessels and attacking the city of Odesa.
Ukraine wants to sell the grain to bolster its struggling economy and to “remain reliable guarantors of food security,” Kuleba said.
Another piece of the food security crisis is the skyrocketing prices and limited availability of fertilizers. Adva asked Yara International CEO Svein Tore Holsether if the company would be willing to cap fertilizer prices in low-income countries to ensure access. He responded with a swift “yes.”
Yara will also donate about 20 metric tons of fertilizers to Ghana soon, but it is looking for partners, he said. The company distributed some 40 million metric tons of fertilizers in East Africa during the pandemic through a partnership with the World Food Programme, which led to yield increases sufficient to feed 1 million people for a year, Holsether said.
In the latest Davos episode of our new podcast series Davos Dispatch, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, shares what’s ahead for the organization’s replenishment in September and reflects on how the ACT-Accelerator could have more effectively responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
+ Sign up to Devex Invested, our free, weekly newsletter, where Adva tracks how business and development finance leaders are tackling global challenges.
What’s the deal?
Pfizer made a bid for Davos headlines with what Senior Vice President Caroline Roan tells Devex is “the most comprehensive offering that we know of that has been made for medicines across multiple therapeutic areas.”
What does that mean? Pfizer has committed to provide patented medicines and vaccines that are already available in the United States and Europe at a not-for-profit price to 45 lower-income countries, Sara Jerving reports.
Read: Behind Pfizer's new not-for-profit deal on patented vaccines and drugs
+ Get exclusive global health news and insider insights by signing up for Devex CheckUp — our free, must-read Thursday newsletter.
Onshoring
“We want our African companies to solve African energy problems.”
— Sandra Chukwudozie, CEO, Salpha EnergyRumbi Chakamba reports that African energy entrepreneurs face major hurdles in securing investment — which still mostly flows to foreign-owned companies.
Read: African entrepreneurs call for more investment in local energy startups
ICYMI: African leaders present unified position on a just energy transition (Pro)
Left behind
Despite the unprecedented funding response to Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis, donors are falling short on protecting women and girls and are providing inadequate support to women’s rights organizations, according to a new report from VOICE and HIAS.
“These funds are not getting into the hands of [women’s rights organizations] and they are not being used to prioritize [gender-based violence] programming, which sadly reinforces one of the largest ongoing failures of the humanitarian system: the failure to fund and prioritize response efforts to meet the unique protection needs of women and girls as lifesaving,” it reads.
In other news
A group of U.S. lawmakers wrote to USAID chief Samantha Power on Monday asking to scale up food aid in Haiti, as nearly half the country's population risks hunger. [The Hill]
The humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières has come under fire for its alleged commissioning and selling of images of vulnerable people, including minors. [The Guardian]
The EU is considering redirecting money for development projects in Africa to support countries struggling with food insecurity due to the war in Ukraine. [Reuters]
Adva Saldinger contributed to this edition.
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
