The WHO pandemic treaty: responding to needs or playing COVID-19 geopolitics?

Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2021 - Briefing

The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has ignited eagerness in some circles for new binding instruments in the global health arena. This is an unexpected development, in many ways: health policy arrangements are mostly grounded on soft norms, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted binding agreements only twice in its 76 years of history. Nicoletta Dentico describes in her paper the background of the proposal for a Pandemic Treaty currently discussed in the WHO and discloses the actors and their interests. She places the proposal in the broader context of the global health crisis and the power asymmetries in global health governance.

 

By Nicoletta Dentico, Society for International Development (SID)

Published by: Social Watch, Third World Network, Global Policy Forum, Arab NGO Network for Development, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, Society for International Development, Public Servies International, Center for Economic and Social Rights with support from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Beirut/Bonn/Ferney-Voltaire/Montevideo/New York/Penang/Rome/Suva, October 2021

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