Newsletter Edition #161 [Treaty Talks]
Readers,
Multilateralism is important, but cannot be an end in itself: this seems to be the message that WHO member states sent out this week.
The open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group has sought more time to negotiate the Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing System at the WHO. The work of the member-states led body is expected to continue for another year in a bid to reach consensus.
It was a slow but significant week at the WHO. Read our edition today, where I distill the countless interviews I conducted during the proceedings last week, and bring insights from negotiators for our readers.
As before, we note that the press has, for all practical purposes, been shut out of the process for the last four years of negotiations at the WHO. While we do have access to the WHO campus, regular and formal briefings on the negotiations have been few and rare. The webcast of discussions with non-state actors, hitherto accessible, have also been turned off. All this collectively makes reporting on these negotiations extremely challenging.
This work is time and resource intensive. We want more countries and stakeholders to support our work, so that we continue to keep an eye on the ball. Write to us if you want to support our reporting on the PABS talks. It will be challenging for us to continue with this track of reporting without consistent and substantial support particularly from users of this information, including countries and institutions involved and interested in these negotiations.
Finally, at the World Health Assembly later this month, we have a side event on the PABS discussions, alongside the release of our new book, “How the Pandemic Agreement Was Negotiated at the World Health Organization”. Sign up here if you want to come!
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Priti
Priti Patnaik, Founder & Publisher, Geneva Health Files
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Presenting our weekly in-depth analysis on global health that captures the big picture and the nuances like no one else does. This is an exclusive edition for our subscribers.
I. ANALYSIS IGWG6 UPDATE
Countries Negotiate More Time, Ward Off Pressure to Rush Consensus on the WHO Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing System
By Priti Patnaik
“Even divine intervention will not help at this stage,” a developed country negotiator told us at the conclusion of the latest round of formal negotiations on the Pathogen Access Benefit Sharing (PABS).
The writing was on the wall. WHO member states recognized the distance between their positions, and the depth of the technical nature of the PABS system. At the resumed session of the sixth meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) meeting in Geneva last week, countries sought additional time to continue the negotiations on the WHO PABS system.
In doing so, countries exercised pragmatism, and gave the process more oxygen in a bid to build a considered system to access the information on pathogens, and find ways to share benefits during health emergencies including pandemics and Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEICs). While there was disappointment among many quarters, this was near-choiceless given the lack of convergence on key “foundational matters”.
The PABS negotiations are arguably the most important multilateral negotiations currently underway, some experts are of the view. They touch not only key areas of global health, but also on matters of trade and security. The negotiations will now run for another year till May 2027, unless countries reach consensus on PABS earlier in which case a special session of the World Health Assembly is not ruled out.
In this story, we capture the dynamics as they evolved in the meeting last week during April 27th-May 1st. We spoke with delegations, experts across the board. And reviewed documents that were considered informally. We also share behind-the-scenes politics in these charged closed-door discussions. There were numerous intersecting conversations between the negotiations, and on the election process of a new Director-General of the WHO, for example. Negotiators are hard pressed for time ahead of the annual World Health Assembly which begins less than two weeks from now.
