On 1 December 2021, the special session of the World Health Assembly adopted a decision launch intergovernmental negotiations to draft and negotiate a WHO convention,agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response; this signaled the intent of WHO member states to consider deep consequential reforms in the global pandemic response.
Operative 1(2) of decision SSA2(5) stated:
Stressing that Member States should guide their efforts to develop such an instrument by the principle of solidarity with all people and countries, that should frame practical actions to deal with both causes and consequences of pandemics and other health emergencies.
1. DECIDES
(1)to establish, in accordance with Rule 41 of its Rules of Procedure, an intergovernmental negotiating body open to all Member States and Associate Members (the “INB”) to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, with a view to adoption under Article 19, or under other provisions of the WHO Constitution as may be deemed appropriate by the INB;
(2)that the first meeting of the INB shall be held no later than 1 March 2022, in order to elect two co-chairs, reflecting a balance of developed and developing countries, and four vice-chairs, one from each of the six WHO regions, and to define and agree on its working methods and timelines, consistent with this decision and based on the principles of inclusiveness, transparency, efficiency, Member State leadership and consensus;
(3)that as part of its working methods, the INB shall determine an inclusive Member State led process, to be facilitated by the co-chairs and vice-chairs, to first identify the substantive elements of the instrument and to then begin the development of a working draft to be presented, on the basis of progress achieved, for the consideration of the INB at its second meeting, to be held no later than 1 August 2022, at the end of which the INB will identify the provision of the WHO Constitution under which the instrument should be adopted in line with paragraph 1(1);
Informed sources have disclosed to KEI that the the bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) will be comprised of representatives from Brazil (Tovar da Silva Nunes), Egypt (Ahmed Soliman), Japan (Kazuho Taguchi), Netherlands (Roland Driece), South Africa (Precious Matsoso), and Thailand (Viroj Tangcharoensathien). The two co-chairs of the INB are Roland Driece (Netherlands) and Precious Matsoso (South Africa). The first meeting of the INB will take place on Thursday, 24 February 2022: https://apps.who.int/gb/inb/e/e_inb-1.html. A detailed timeline of the INB process can be found here: https://apps.who.int/gb/inb/pdf_files/inb1/A_INB1_3b-en.pdf.