Countries the attempt to negotiate a global agreement on managing future pandemics began an extra week of talks on Monday (2 December), with the WHO chief insisting the end was in sight.

The talks at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva began three years after the decision to draft a new agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response was taken in the heat of the Covid-19 crisis.

“You know your task, and you know what’s at stake,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told negotiators for the UN health body’s 194 member states.

“You should be proud of what you have achieved in the last three years and you should also be sure that the end is in sight. It is closer than you think.

“I think you can complete the pending issues before the end of this year,” he added.

Concluding an international agreement in little more than three years would be exceptionally fast, given the typical glacial pace of striking treaties.

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While countries agree on the broad scope of what they want, the finer details remain up for debate.

“For the pandemic agreement to be meaningful, you need provisions for strong prevention, for continued preparedness and for robust, resilient and equitable response,” Tedros warned.

“An unbalanced pandemic agreement is not an agreement.”

The one-week session is a resumption of the 12th round of negotiations, which ran from November 4-15.

Monday’s talks focused on research and development, sustainable financing, transfer of technology and know-how for the production of pandemic-related health products, prevention and surveillance, and on the heart of the agreement: the proposed pathogen access and distribution system.

On Friday, countries will take stock and decide whether they have made enough progress to call an extra session of the World Health Assembly to adopt a final agreement.

A special session of WHO’s highest decision-making body takes 35 days to arrange.

Many are thinking about Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency on January 20.

Trump is hostile to the WHO. During his first term, he began pulling the United States out of the organization, accusing it of being a puppet of China.

Precious Matsoso, chair of the talks, said it was hoped this week would “resolve most of the issues”.

Co-chair Anne-Claire Amprou called it an “important week to advance our work”, and urged countries to work in a pragmatic, flexible and realistic way.

“This is becoming urgent,” she added. AFP