WHO pandemic performance to be evaluated
At the final day of the two-day 73rd World Health Assembly on Tuesday, delegates adopted a resolution that also calls for an independent and comprehensive evaluation of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s pandemic performance.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he will initiate such an evaluation at the earliest appropriate time.
He added that his organization remains fully committed to continuous improvement, accountability and transparency.
“We want accountability more than any one,” said Dr. Tedros. “I thank Dr Felicity Harvey and the members of the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee for their continuous work to review WHO’s work in health emergencies, and in particular for their report on the COVID-19 response published yesterday, that covers from the start of the pandemic until April.”
The Ebola outbreak of 2014 and 2015 led to the establishment of the Independent Oversight Advisory Committee along with the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility and the WHO Emergencies Programme.
“Checking and learning our lessons is in WHO’s DNA, and that’s what this report shows,” said the WHO chief further. “I hope the recommendations of the independent committee will be taken seriously by Member States. Some of the recommendations are to WHO, and we will take our share seriously.”
The resolution was co-sponsored by more than 130 countries and adopted by consensus. In addition to the evaluation of WHO’s pandemic performance, it also calls for a comprehensive, independent review of the global response. Moreover, “intensification of efforts to control the pandemic and for equitable access to and fair distribution of all essential health technologies and products to combat the virus” were called for, according to a WHO media release.
“As WHO convened ministers of health from almost every country in the world, the consistent message throughout the two-day meeting – including from the 14 heads of state participating in the opening and closing sessions — was that global unity is the most powerful tool to combat the outbreak,” adds the media release. “The resolution is a concrete manifestation of this call, and a roadmap for controlling the outbreak.”
The World Health Assembly will reconvene later this year.
