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URL: https://g2h2.org/posts/may2021/

⇱ Lost in the pandemic? The pulse of global health in times of SARS-CoV-2. Policy dialogues ahead of the 74th World Health Assembly, 10-13 May 2021, organized and hosted by G2H2 – G2H2

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Lost in the Pandemic? The pulse of global health in times of SARS-CoV-2
Policy dialogues ahead of the 74th World Health Assembly

The Pandemic treaty proposal: Seeking accountability after the disaster?
Monday, 10 May 2021, 15.00-16.30 hrs CEST

Claiming  a dignified and universal approach for vaccination: Covid-19 realities of people on the move 
Tuesday, 11 May 2021, 15.00-16.30 hrs CEST

Beyond state control and corporate power: An alternative digitalization of public health
Wednesday, 12 May 2021, 14.00-15.30 hrs CEST

Sustainable WHO financing: But what World Health Organization do we want?
Thursday, 13 May 2021, 15.00-16.30 hrs CEST

Over one year after the outbreak of the Covid-19, the world remains dominated by the pandemic. As does the political space: the application of a “Covid-19” lens to core fields of global health presents opportunities, building on a new interest for health and an emerging syndemic view of the crisis, as well as on a common sense of urgency. However, in the current fragmentation of health governance,  it also displays significant risks of deepening inequality and perpetuating exploitation.

The emergency management of the pandemic, with its failures and contradictions, puts us at risk of an instrumentalization of Covid-19 to further justify the health security agenda and accelerate the securitization of public health. Exclusive focus on vaccines and the prolonged fight against the disease  in the face of new viral waves and variants – have already distanced the discussion from addressing the systemic root-causes of the disease: the failures of national and global governance which prioritise marketization and financialisation, and roll back public services delivery. Ultimately, the triple Covid-19 crisis – a social and economic, as well as a health pandemic – cannot be dissociated from the  pathogenetic drivers of globalization, with their unsustainable policies and distorted governance paradigms.

Ahead of the 74th World Health Assembly, this series of public meetings aimed at bridging some key political elements of the WHA agenda with civil society perspectives on Covid-19 related processes that demand specific attention, assessment and action.  All in all, we looked into the state of global health in times of the pandemic and provide a space for encouraging those who promote substantial change.

Scroll down for outlines, recordings and documentations of the four sessions
Session outlines are also available in Spanish and French

Monday, 10 May 2021, 15.00-16.30 hrs CEST
The Pandemic treaty proposal: seeking accountability after the disaster?

The newly emerging proposal of a pandemic treaty, hailed by the WHO Director-General and  discussed by G20 heads of state, leads to more questions than answers.  

Through its harsh lessons, the Covid-19 event has provided an unmissable wake up call for advancing universalism in health, public responsibility as a priority, and the goal of adequate people centred health systems as the best response to the current and future pandemics. Now, is the recent pandemic treaty move the mature response to that wake up call? After years of allergy to treaty-making, is this new development an attempt to recognise and restore the pivotal role of the World Health Organization as the one leading global health authority with normative function, towards reclaiming a conscious multilateralism? What are the politics, and the promises, behind this new binding health instrument?  Why would  governments create a new treaty if during the pandemic they refused to abide by international law and norms for pandemic management that were already in place?  

This session provided the starting point of a civil society analysis of the potential implications of the new “pandemic treaty” proposal.  Experts who have been directly engaged in treaty-making shared their know-how and lessons about binding instruments’ negotiations. What are the conditions for a treaty to be adopted and get implemented? How can it be made a real instrument of change? Are there connections with parallel treaty making processes? 

Panelists
  • Jaouad Mahjour, ADG Emergency Preparedness, WHO (EN)
  • Paulo M. Buss, Latin-American Alliance of Global Health and Fiocruz, Brazil (ES)
  • Priti Patnaik, Journalist, Geneva Health Files, India/Switzerland (EN)
  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, The New School, USA (EN)
  • Michél Legendre, Corporate Accountability, Tobacco Campaign (EN)
  • Steven Solomon, Principal Legal Officer, WHO (EN)

Introduction and moderation: Nicoletta Dentico, Society for International Development and G2H2, Italy (EN)

Recording and documentation
References, resources
Languages/interpretation
  • English – French – Spanish
    Thanks to the team!
Session organizer
  • Nicoletta Dentico, Society for International Development, G2H2 Co-President and member of the organizing team

Tuesday, 11 May 2021, 15.00-16.30 hrs CEST
Claiming  a dignified and universal approach for vaccination: Covid-19 realities of people on the move 

The availability of Covid-19 vaccines has made it from a call for health equity to the top of the domestic and international agenda. “Access” issues are now debated everywhere, and they seem to concern everybody – something that had not happened since the times of the HIV/AIDS crisis. 

But is access to vaccines the end of the story? Are we sure that the political attention on the availability of Covid-19 vaccines may be used for the promotion of global public goods, international cooperation and solidarity? Or doesn’t it rather perpetuate nationalism and corporate capture? What will happen with the call for a “people’s vaccine” when everybody in the rich countries is vaccinated? How to link the struggle for vaccine equity with the aspirational struggle for universal access to health care and health equity, well beyond the pharmacological field and the biomedical approach?

Beyond the surface of the “race for vaccines”, in itself not to be resolved technically or easily, we inhabit a global apartheid regime that increasignly separates the privileged ones in their green, clean, wealthy bubbles from those marginalized living in outside suburbs in filthy, sick and deprecable environments, in refugee settlements or substandard shelters and / or hidden as “illegal” migrants. With a lack of  access to healthcare and social protection. With the make-up of charity organizations, replacing real and structural solidarity. The “social pandemic” affecting the most marginalized individuals is also an occasion to look into the multiple causes of displacements and their interactions with access to health. 

This session focused on the dire realities of uprooted individuals, including refugees, migrants, displaced and stateless, in times of the pandemic: How has Covid-19 further jeopardized their dignity, and what do they expect from a “universal approach” called for as a response to the growing vaccine nationalism? How to squarely position human rights at the centre of a national and international public health agenda? What are the collective actions undertaken to ensure that equity is ensured at the global level and how can we contribute to fight corruption and “politicization” of some national vaccination campaigns, likely to deepen rather than overcome  social exclusion, inequity, injustice and marginalization? 

Panelists
  • Firas Jaber, Al-Marsad, Palestine (EN)
  • Safaa Fawaz Tahhan, Health Outreach Refugee Volunteer, Lebanon (AR)
  • Ana Quiroz, CISAS, Costa Rica (ES)
  • Apostolos Veizis, Intersos, Greece (EN)
  • Julie Steendam, European Citizens’ Initiative, Belgium (EN)

Introduction and moderation

  • Virginie Lefevre, Amel Association International, Lebanon  (EN)
  • Mohamad El Zayed, Amel Association International, Lebanon (EN)
Documentation
References, resources
Languages/interpretation
  • English – Arabic – Spanish
    Thanks to the team!
Session organizer
  • Virginie Lefèvre, Amel Association International, G2H2 Steering Committee and member of the organizing team.

Wednesday, 12 May 2021, 14.00-15.30 hrs CEST
Beyond state control and corporate power:  An alternative digitalization of public health

The Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to putting data and digitalization squarely at the centre of national and international public health. Unfortunately, in several cases during the pandemic, such interest in the potentials of digital health has materialised in the securitization of health information and forms of data appropriation by private actors.

Until now, digital health has largely been presented by the corporate sector and governments as a potential way to bypass the consequences of weakened health systems. Civil society has already voiced strong critiques of how individual data is used by the technology industry, and pointed out many issues linked with privacy and state control of data. At the same time, the industry is building power not only on the usage of individual data, but also from its control and ownership of collective (anonymised) data. This has resulted in Big Tech being able to influence how the whole systems function. 

We believe that shaping a different civil society approach to digital health – one oriented towards ensuring public ownership of data, and its use for building stronger health systems – can facilitate a post-pandemic recovery that will make health care accessible to more people.

The session was based on inputs from activists from different regions of the world, who are working on ensuring that digital policies are shaped from below and implemented for the benefit of the people.

Panelists
  • Daria Cibrario, Public Services International, Geneva (EN)
  • Junho Jung, Center for Health and Social Change, South Korea (EN)
  • Matheus Falcão, Centro de Estudos e Pesquisas de Direito Sanitário and People’s Health Movement, Brazil (EN)
  • Elias Kondilis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (EN)

Introduction and moderation 

  • Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change, India (EN)
  • Ana Vračar, People’s Health Movement, Croatia (EN)
Documentation
  • Zoom cloud recording of the policy dialogue (with the original language of all the inputs)
  • Digital health in Brazil. Input by Matheus Z. Falcão: PPT as PDF
  • Digital health in Korea. Input by Junho Jung: PPT as PDF
References, resources
Languages/interpretation
  • English – French – Spanish
    Thanks to the team!
Session organizer
  • Ana Vračar, People’s Health Movement, G2H2 Steering Committee member and member of the organizing team

Thursday, 13 May 2021, 15.00-16.30 hrs CEST
Sustainable WHO financing: But what World Health Organization do we want?

At the Executive Board meeting in January, WHO Member States agreed to set up a  time-bound and results-oriented “Working Group on Sustainable Financing of the WHO” open to all Member States. The working group that had its first meeting in March and will report to the World Health Assembly about its initial progress is expected to “develop a high-level, systemic approach to identify the essential functions of WHO that should be funded in a sustainable manner”. 

There are many related issues and open questions:

  • Shall the identification of “WHO essential functions” now be done by a time-bound working group? If yes, what about the core functions of WHO framed in the Constitution, e.g. treaty making? Are they to be renegotiated and reconfirmed (or dropped)? 
  • Are Member States willing to pay more for a stronger and better WHO? If yes, what are their terms and conditions? As one commenter stated, “it is striking how much financing can circumscribe overall governance”.
  • How to position the recently established “WHO Foundation” and its relaxed approach to fundraising at the corporate sector in this picture? How much space will be given “innovative” funding, if  Member States  are not ready to play their part?
  • etc.

In this policy dialogue, we first got updated on the “Sustainable WHO Financing” process, to allow those who critically follow the Member States Working Group on Sustainable Financing of the WHO sharpening their lens. The interactive plenary then focused on the simple (?) question: What World Health Organization do we (Member States and civil society) want?

Documentation
  • Zoom cloud recording of the policy dialogue (with the original language of all the inputs)
  • Introduction by Thomas Schwarz, MMI Network and G2H2
    Slides (PPT as PDF): here
  • Interview with Björn Kümmel, Co-chair of the WHO Executive Board
    and chair of the WHO Working Group on Sustainable Financing
    Questions by Nicoletta Dentico, G2H2 Co-President
    Interview recorded on 10 May 2021: here
References, resources

Sustainable WHO Financing

WHO basics

The WHO we want, and the need to reform it

Languages/interpretation
  • English – French – Spanish
    Thanks to the team!
Session organizer
  • Thomas Schwarz, Medicus Mundi International Network, G2H2 Secretariat and member of the organizing team 

Thank you!

This series of policy dialogues organized by G2H2 took place two weeks before the opening of the 74th World Health Assembly. Thanks to everybody who attended and contributed!

The interpretations have been made possible thanks to the kind contribution by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation.

For general enquiries, please get in touch with the G2H2 secretariat. Contacts for enquiries regarding particular policy dialogues are provided below the session outlines and documentations.

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