A high-level body set up to monitor humanity’s preparedness for health crises has released a list of recommendations — and yes, one of them is an international agreement on preparing for the next health emergency.
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The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board is urging WHO member countries to adopt an international agreement next month setting out a plan for global health emergency preparedness and response, Jenny Lei Ravelo writes.
But that’s not all they advised. They also recommend that:
• WHO executive board should significantly increase WHO’s contributions.
• Current negotiations to establish a new Financial Intermediary Fund should “conclude rapidly.”
• Member states should take stock of lessons from the review of the Assess to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, and establish a “permanent structure” for development, production, and equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines for health emergencies.
• The United Nations General Assembly should convene a summit of heads of states and government on health emergency preparedness and response.
“Hundreds of expert recommendations have been made over the last two decades, new structures have been created, but the level of ambition and action has failed to match the global need. We know what to do. We just cannot seem to do it,” the report reads.
Read: High-level body urges countries to forge a pandemic agreement
Devex looked into the top four grant-making foundations in global development aside from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — which is still the top private donor by leaps and bounds — according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s database information from 2019. The quartet includes Wellcome, Mastercard Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and Ford Foundation, which together spent almost $1.1 billion in 2019.
Devex Pro: 4 major philanthropic foundations that aren't the Gates Foundation
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The nearly two-decade-old concept of “One Health” — the transdisciplinary attempt to address the nexus of human, animal, and ecosystem health — has been updated at the World Health Summit that concludes today in Berlin. A One Health High Level Expert Panel first convened in May used the summit to unveil its definition of the concept: a mobilization “at all levels of society to work together to tackle threats to health and ecosystems, while addressing our collective needs for healthy foods, energy and air, taking action on climate change and promoting sustainable development,” Andrew Green reports.
The rapid spread of the COVID-19, which likely originated in animals, has brought renewed attention to One Health and the need to take preventive action to reduce the likelihood of a zoonotic spillover in the future. This year’s COP 26 will feature, for the first time, a health pavilion highlighting how actions that deepen the climate crisis, including deforestation, also bring humans into closer contact with animals and raise the risk of future pandemics.
Devex Pro: One Health gets a new update at the World Health Summit
+ Devex Pro subscribers can learn more about the investments and efforts needed to prevent another virus spillover in this Q&A with Dr. Aaron Bernstein, chair of Harvard-led scientific task force on pandemic prevention.
Africa CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong and Mastercard Foundation CEO Reeta Roy write about the “moral quandary” and “real global threat” presented by vaccine access inequities between high- and lower-income African countries in an op-ed for Devex.
”What’s important to note is that Africa is not asking for more donations or commitments,” they say. “African leaders want to purchase the vaccines. Wealthier nations that have already vaccinated significant swathes of their populations can relieve the pressure on manufacturers by repositioning themselves in the global queue.”
The two also point out that Africa has experience with large-scale vaccine rollouts that could be leveraged for COVID-19: Last year, Ethiopia managed to vaccinate 15 million children against measles in 10 days “even during a lockdown.”
Opinion: Equal vaccine access isn't charity, it's our best tool
Biotechnology company Moderna announced Tuesday it would provide the African Union with up to 110 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, only the second such deal the AU has secured through its African Vaccine Acquisition Trust. Moderna has resisted sharing the technical know-how on how to produce its vaccine and has been accused of profiteering off of the pandemic.
Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, co-chair of the AU’s African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, was unimpressed on Twitter:
+ For updates on COVID-19 and vaccine equity and rollout, sign up for Devex CheckUp, the must-read weekly newsletter for exclusive global health news and insider insights.
High-income countries won’t deliver a promised $100 billion in climate finance to help lower-income countries deal with the effects of a warming planet until at least 2023, according to a new report released Monday. While some officials say the plan itself was an achievement and the figures are encouraging, environmental groups are unimpressed, with one calling it “utterly shameful” and calling for high-income countries to “pull their finger out and get this money on the table” ahead of COP 26 next month.
Read: $100B climate finance commitment won't be met until 2023
The United States on Monday moved to pause $700 million in emergency assistance to Sudan after the military arrested political leaders in a coup. [New York Times]
Ahead of COP 26, Australia has announced that it aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but failed to share a more detailed plan to achieve it. [France 24]
Amnesty International will shut down its offices in Hong Kong, saying that China’s national security law will make it hard to operate there. [BBC]
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