Statement In Support Of The Elders’ Policy Position Paper On Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness And Response

January 30, 2025

As we remember the day, five years ago, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, we welcome the vision of The Elders as they release a new Policy Position Paper on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.

We are proud to be members of The Elders, who collectively have tackled, analysed and fostered diplomacy to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response for more than two decades. We fully support The Elders’ call for urgent focus on the need for leadership and collaboration to stop the next pandemic threat becoming a pandemic. 

We recognize the work which has been done so far to fill gaps in pandemic preparedness and response, but, nonetheless, the world remains ill-equipped to face down a new pandemic threat. 

Current outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, Marburg, mpox, and now new reports of Ebola provide examples of the persistence of lack of leadership and collaboration, inadequate finance, and inequitable access to countermeasures. 

The Independent Panel endorses The Elders’ call for a high-level leadership body for pandemic preparedness and response comprised of current and former leaders; for a multisectoral pandemic plan; for whole-of-society engagement with an equitable, human-rights focus; and for sustainable financing through new funding models. 

Amongst The Elders’ thoughtful positions, we highlight the opportunities that must be taken this year. These include:

• Continued efforts to negotiate a Pandemic Accord under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution. It must operationalise equity, including a commitment on investment to build regional self-reliance for outbreak and pandemic countermeasures; and agree a Conference of the Parties that can include an independent monitoring mechanism. We encourage negotiators to focus on the progress made to date, to make measurable breakthroughs on pathogen access and benefit sharing favouring equity, and to find a way to enshrine that progress by May.
   
• The coming into force of the amended International Health Regulations (IHR) in September 2025. Countries must now be establishing national authorities – which should be multisectoral and report to the highest level of government. The amended IHR also will see the establishment of a coordinating finance mechanism, which will be essential to both facilitate access to existing funds, identify funding gaps and mobilise attention to fill them.
   
• The South Africa G20 intention to hold a special stock-taking meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response and to champion equitable access to countermeasures, including through promotion of the Coalition for Local and Regional Production, agreed under Brazil’s G20 leadership. 
   
• The imperative to champion the next UNGA High Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, to be held in 2026. We wholly agree with The Elders’ call for the UN Secretary-General to nominate a Special Envoy for pandemics, who should serve to increase leadership focus on this key meeting.
   
• The need for investment in a global mechanism to manage mis- and disinformation. This could be a critical commitment made in the next political declaration agreed at the High-Level Meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

We continue to join The Elders and many others in offering support to the World Health Organization as the body responsible for directing and coordinating the health response to outbreaks and pandemics.

The WHO cannot do this without sustainable, predictable finance, and collaboration with all Member States. We have already highlighted our concern about the United States’ intention to withdraw from WHO, as this will undermine the health security of the people of the United States and of the entire world.

We appreciate The Elders’ call to focus on biosecurity given the potential for the next pandemic threat to emerge from nature as well as intentionally or unintentionally from a laboratory. Collaboration to strengthen and invest in the Biological Toxin Weapons Convention is an opportunity that cannot be lost. 

We call on all leaders to embrace The Elders’ commitment to long-view leadership. This is essential to curtail pandemic threats, and to keep the world safe from the potential of multiple existential catastrophes that could put us all at risk.

We continue to believe that pandemic threats are inevitable but can be addressed through the political choice of action.

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