On Monday afternoon, 9 September 2024, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered this statement on the complementarity and coherence between the amended International Health Regulations (2005), adopted by the Seventy‑seventh World Health Assembly, and the proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement
While there is value in coherence between the amended International Health Regulations (2005), adopted by the Seventy‑seventh World Health Assembly, and the proposal for the WHO Pandemic Agreement, coherence should not be an end in itself.
There are some topics, such as technology transfer, where the outcome of the text on a pandemic agreement could differ from the IHR, for example, when there are references to voluntary or mutually agreed terms, topics that have been controversial, and for which parties are seeking more clear and appropriate language, and avoid any impression of a double standard between developed and developing country options.