Enhancing Global Health Preparedness for the Future

 

Introduction

The final event of the 2021 Development Matters lecture series, which is supported by Irish Aid, featured a ‘fireside’ conversation between Colm Brophy TD, Minister of State for Overseas Development and the Diaspora, and Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Emergencies Programme. The speakers discussed global health preparedness for the future.

The event was chaired by H.E. Ms Mary Whelan, former Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva. In her opening remarks, she explained the role of Irish Aid as both a sponsor of the Development Matters series and as part of the global response in the public health space.

Vaccine Inequity

The conversation took place against the backdrop of the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Omicron was first reported in South Africa on Wednesday, 24 November 2021. At that time just 28.4% of the population had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The emergence of the Omicron variant has sparked renewed debate about vaccine equity. Since the beginning of the pandemic over €200 million in Irish Aid funding has been invested in improving global public health, including the response to COVID-19. This has helped multilateral partners such as the COVAX Facility and WHO to accelerate the equitable distribution of vaccines to Low and Middle Income Countries. Nevertheless, Minister of State Brophy acknowledged that “we can always and should always be looking to do more”.

International Law Guarantees

Another key issue at play is the lack of an international framework governing preparation and response to pandemics. On Wednesday, 1 December 2021, the 194 Member States of the WHO reached consensus to kickstart the process to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. An intergovernmental negotiating body will now be constituted and hold its first meeting by Tuesday, 1 March 2022 (to agree on ways of working and timelines) and its second by Monday, 1 August 2022 (to discuss progress on a working draft). It will then deliver a progress report to the 76th World Health Assembly in 2023, with the aim to adopt the instrument by 2024.

Multipronged Approaches

The WHO, along with Ireland and numerous other Member States are working towards the creation of a new international agreement for pandemic preparedness. Both Dr Ryan and Minister of State Brophy agreed on the need for multilateral and multi-pronged approaches to dealing with pandemics. On an international level, Minister Brophy emphasised the need for collective action within existing frameworks. He also emphasised the need to strengthen and develop these frameworks. Dr Ryan argued that the newly proposed pandemic preparedness and response treaty is necessary in order to prepare the world for the next pandemic in a better way than it was prepared for COVID-19. Such a treaty, he posited, will need to address key issues such as sustainable financing and equity of distribution.

Other Communicable Diseases

Minister of State Brophy reaffirmed Ireland’s commitment to the financing of health systems in developing countries, which is now more important than ever in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. While acknowledging the immediacy of the threat of COVID-19, he stressed that other communicable diseases such as Ebola, HIV-AIDS and malaria continue to put health systems around the world under serious pressure[RF1] . Funding to health systems, he argued, need to be increased, not only to address COVID-19 itself, but also the impact of COVID-19 on health systems responses to other communicable diseases. Dr Ryan agreed and commended the “tremendous resilience” of health systems and their health care workers, particularly in developing countries. He called for continued solidarity and support from the development and humanitarian community going forward.

Implications for Ireland’s Global Health Priorities

The most recent surge of COVID-19 cases globally as a result of the Omicron variant has further complicated Ireland’s efforts to strengthen health systems in developing countries. Ireland’s strategy for international development, A Better World, acknowledges access to health systems as a key challenge to combatting existing communicable diseases such as HIV-AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Through continued support via Team Europe, COVAX and bilaterally, Ireland hopes to mitigate the difficulties these countries’ health systems face.

Implications for Global Health Multilateralism
Ireland, as a proponent of the proposed pandemic preparedness and response treaty, has an important role to play in ensuring the achievement of certain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This not only includes Good Health and Wellbeing (SDG 3), but also Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17). Should Ireland and the rest of the global community succeed in enshrining protection for the global health architecture in international law, it will have strengthened the means of implementation of measures to protect global health and demonstrated the power of solidarity for sustainable development.

Conclusion
Both Dr Ryan and Minister of State Brophy said that there is no silver bullet to achieve global health preparedness, but the best way would be to continue with such multilateral work in a coherent and cohesive manner. In that sense, addressing vaccine inequity and continuing to work towards a pandemic preparedness treaty will prove pivotal. Minister of State Brophy concluded the conversation by quoting Dr Ryan’s own words: “nobody is safe until everybody is safe”.