Prepare to be watched. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) adopted a landmark Pandemic Agreement on Tuesday designed to help it tackle future health crises predicated on an enhanced ability to watch, monitor and surveil specific national responses to threats.
The U.N. subsidiary is meeting at its headquarters by the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland with thousands of members flying in for the nine-days of talks, meetings, conferences, dinners, and closed-door diplomacy.
It has moved on the back of more than three years of negotiations sparked by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic as it seeks to chart a way forward after the U.S. withdrew funding from W.H.O. in the first days of the Donald Trump administration.
The U.S., traditionally the top donor to the U.N. health agency, was not part of the final stages of the agreement due to Trump’s exit, leaving the W.H.O. to grapple with a $1.7 billion gap in 2026-2027 spending plans as it seeks to trim 12 months of budget costs from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion.
“It’s an historic day,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus exclaimed to AFP after the vote built on the text of the agreement that was finalised by consensus last month, following multiple rounds of negotiations.
Tedros said in a statement:
The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration and commitment of our member states to adopt the historic W.H.O. Pandemic Agreement.
The agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action. It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the world from future pandemic threats.
It is also a recognition by the international community that our citizens, societies and economies must not be left vulnerable to again suffer losses like those endured during Covid-19.
According to the AFP report, the agreement “aims to better detect and combat pandemics by focusing on greater international coordination and surveillance, and more equitable access to vaccines and treatments.”
The treaty also guarantees countries which share virus samples will receive tests, medicines and vaccines. Up to 20 percent of such products would be gifted to the W.H.O. to ensure poorer countries have some access to them when the next pandemic hits, AP reports.
Precious Matsoso of South Africa, and France’s ambassador for global health Anne-Claire Amprou, co-chaired the process that delivered the agreement.
“It is intended to create a rules-based, future-proof system that will stand the test of time. It does not, and will not, undermine the sovereignty of countries,” she told the assembly on Monday.
World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers his report before delegates during the World Health Assembly in Geneva on May 19, 2025. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
German Federal Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) exits her personal flight at Geneva Airport. The Minister has travelled to visit the World Health Organization (WHO). (Sascha Meyer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
“In a time of growing geopolitical tensions and seismic changes, this agreement is proof that the world is still together.”
The new agreement includes launching a process to draft and negotiate a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS) through an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG).
A total of 124 countries supported the new treaty, while 11 abstained including Poland, Israel and Italy.
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