Blog

Jérôme Salomon: WHO MS conclude negotiations and make significant progress on draft pandemic agreement

Jérôme Salomon/LinkedIn

Apr 18, 2025, 17:44

Jérôme Salomon: WHO MS conclude negotiations and make significant progress on draft pandemic agreement

Jérôme Salomon, Assistant Director General of World Health Organization, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“SUCCES de l’OMS !

World Health Organization Member States MS conclude negotiations and make significant progress on draft pandemic agreement: Proposal to be submitted to World Health Assembly WHA in May for consideration.

After more than 3 years of intensive negotiations, WHO MS took a major step forward in efforts to make the world safer from pandemics, by forging a draft agreement for consideration at the upcoming WHA in May. The proposal aims to strengthen global collaboration on prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemic threats.

In December 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO MS established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument, under the WHO Constitution, to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

Following 13 formal rounds of meetings, 9 of which were extended, and many informal and intersessional negotiations on various aspects of the draft agreement, the INB today finalized a proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The outcome of the INB’s work will now be presented to the 78th WHA for its consideration.

‘The nations of the world made history in Geneva today,’ said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO DG ‘In reaching consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, not only did they put in place a generational accord to make the world safer, they have also demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well, and that in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground, and a shared response to shared threats. I thank WHO’s MS, and their negotiating teams, for their foresight, commitment and tireless work. We look forward to the WHA’s consideration of the agreement and – we hope – its adoption’

Proposals within the text developed by the INB include:

establishing a pathogen access and benefit sharing system;
taking concrete measures on pandemic prevention, including through a OneHealth approach;
building geographically diverse research and development capacities; facilitating the transfer of technology and related knowledge, skills and expertise for the production of pandemic-related health products;
mobilizing a skilled, trained and multidisciplinary national and global health emergency workforce;
setting up a coordinating financial mechanism;
taking concrete measures to strengthen preparedness, readiness and health system functions and resilience;
and establishing a global supply chain and logistics network

The proposal affirms the sovereignty of countries to address public health matters within their borders, and provides that nothing shall be interpreted as providing WHO any authority to direct, order, alter or prescribe national laws or policies, or mandate MS to take specific actions, such as ban or accept travelers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures or implement lockdowns.”

More posts featuring Jérôme Salomon.