“A Treaty of Preparedness: Healing the Future Before It Hurts”

🧬 Thematic Focus

Category: Health & International Relations | WHO | Pandemic Governance

🩺 Key Highlights

• Historic Accord: After three years of negotiation, the WHO finalized only its second international treaty in 75 years, aimed at pandemic preparedness.
  • The first was the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (2003).
• Origins:
  • Initiated post-COVID-19 in 2021.
  • Driven by global inequities in vaccine access and uncoordinated crisis response.
• Core Goals:
  • Prevent confusion and hoarding of resources in future pandemics.
  • Improve global coordination, equity, and readiness.
• Treaty Features:
  • Medicines & PPE Access:
    • Manufacturers to give 10% of PPE to WHO + sell 10% at low cost.
    • WHO gains global supply chain visibility.
  • Technology Sharing:
    • Mutually agreed sharing of health technology with low-income nations.
    • Supports local vaccine & drug production.
  • PABS (Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing):
    • A global system for rapid data sharing to start early drug development.
• Negotiation Challenges:
  • Dispute over mandatory vs. voluntary tech transfers.
  • Pharma concerns: Innovation risks vs. public health needs.
  • Final agreement: voluntary sharing if mutually agreed.
• Global Implications:
  • Victory for multilateralism and international solidarity.
  • Ensures early warning, quicker response, and shared responsibility.
• US Position:
  • Did not join final talks due to prior WHO exit decision.
  • Set to officially exit WHO in 2026, hence not bound by the treaty.

🧠 Concept Explainer

Why a Pandemic Treaty Now?

COVID-19 taught the world a bitter truth — health insecurity anywhere is a threat everywhere. This treaty shifts from panic-driven reaction to protocol-based preparedness, laying the groundwork for a science-backed, equity-oriented global health order.

📜 GS Paper Mapping

• GS Paper II: International Institutions – WHO, Health Diplomacy
• GS Paper III: Disaster Management – Biological Disasters, Pandemic Readiness
• Essay Paper: Global Ethics in Crisis Response

💭 A Thought Spark — by IAS Monk

“The next pandemic cannot be cured by syringes alone — but by trust, time-sharing, and the tender stitching of global resolve.”