State of the Pandemic, World Health Organization, World Bank, Global Governance, Policy, Global
development

Organisations. World Health Organization WHO, World Bank
Period. 15 - 21 September 2020

Last week, the Global Pandemic Monitoring Board published its second annual report calling for multilateral systems to strengthen global pandemic preparedness and response capacity. The independent body, convened by the WHO and the World Bank, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has been exacerbated by a “failure of governance in global collective action, including coordination and engagement with multilateral systems” as well as financing gaps in global health security, including “chronic underinvestment in preparedness as well as states withdrawing financial support.”

The report calls for a re-centering of governance across multilateral systems, including in the following areas: (a) global and regional mechanisms to track pathogens, (b) strengthen early warning and information sharing, (c) intermediate grading of health emergencies, (d) evidence-based policy formulation on travel and trade restrictions, (e) collaborative mechanisms for research and regulatory harmonization, as well as (f) strengthening IHR compliance assessment and enforcement mechanisms.

Global health security presents distinct challenges in low- and middle-income countries, according to the Centre for Global Development, requiring policy restructuring to ensure development gains. In the article, the President of CGD outlines three key problem areas that require coordinated global action: (1) reversing decades of underinvestment in global health security, (2) ensuring the continuity of developmental programs, and (3) expanding funding for these programs to reflect the disproportionate impact of the looming economic crisis on vulnerable populations.

This development is part of the digest;