(Geneva) “Please do it,” the head of the WHO said on Friday in Geneva to countries negotiating an agreement on the prevention and fight against future pandemics, just a few days before the date stopper.
“I know the process has been difficult and at times painful, and it is not over. I know that you all had to make compromises that you did not want to make,” said the Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to diplomats gathered at the headquarters of the World Health Organization.
WHO member countries have been working on the draft international agreement for two years and began marathon negotiations on Monday in the hope of finding a compromise by May 10 at the latest.
Each of the 37 articles of the draft agreement is examined in turn, with country negotiators dividing into working groups to try to find consensus.
After five days of negotiations, the Dr Tedros acknowledged that differences remain, stressing that positions appear closer than before.
“I recognize that there may be delegations which, despite their good faith efforts, are unable to join in a consensus, but they have a choice: they can choose not to block consensus,” he said. -he said.
“Give yourself a reason to be proud,” Mr. Tedros asked the diplomats.
“Give the people of the world, the people of your countries, the people you represent, a more secure future. So I only have one request to make: please do it, for them,” he insisted.
Launch window
The aim of the negotiations is to arrive at a text ready for adoption by the annual assembly of WHO member states, which begins on May 27.
The binding text must make it possible to be ready when the next health disaster hits the world, with the poorest countries insisting on the importance of “equity”.
The main disputes in fact revolve around equity in access to new pathogens, access to vaccines and other drugs developed based on these discoveries, their equitable distribution and the sharing of the means to produce them.
“Countries are starting to find” common ground, talks co-chair Precious Matsoso said at a news conference Friday.
If the discussions on certain articles of the draft text “have progressed significantly” the fact remains that “the window of opportunity is closing”, she warned.
The memory of the millions of deaths, the suffering, the injustices and the immense economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic is fading and the sense of urgency is evaporating.
The new draft focuses on areas of agreement in an attempt to find the necessary consensus and reserves some of the thorniest topics for future discussions over the next two years.
“A good result”
The co-chair of the talks, Roland Drice, acknowledges that as in all negotiations of this type, things are expected to come down to the wire.
“We are convinced that we will obtain a good result by the end of the week,” insisted the Dutch diplomat.
However, non-governmental organizations that followed the negotiations were less optimistic.
“We saw optimism from the co-chairs but on the other side, we heard skepticism from various countries,” KM Gopakumar, a researcher at the Third World Network, told AFP.
“There are still unanswered questions. On equitable access, it still provides nothing concrete. On the means of financing? Quiet,” he said.
He called on developing countries to consider how the text before them would change the unsatisfactory status quo on equal access to vaccines, tests and medicines.
Yuanqiong Hu of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said many issues of concern to his NGO, such as health workers, research and development, and technology transfer to developing countries, were still under in-depth discussion. in working groups.
“It appears that some of the main contentious issues remain controversial,” she told AFP.