(Part 1) Multistakeholder Hearing on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR)- General Assembly, 80th session

I call to order the informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing as part of the preparatory process for the High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. This meeting is held in accordance with paragraph 6 of Resolution 79/2010. 333 of 5 September 2025. I warmly welcome you all to this meeting. This interactive hearing offers an opportunity for participants to benefit from the perspectives of all stakeholders on urgent actions and investments to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. By sharing experiences and best practices, and to raise the level of preparedness, including early warning systems. The hearing aims to support member states with the preparatory process, including to inform the negotiations on the declaration of the high-level meeting through an interactive dialogue with communities, civil society, and other key stakeholders. I will now make a statement on behalf of the President of the General Assembly. Your Excellency, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. Your Excellency, Joy Phumaphi, Co-Chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. Your Excellency Caroli Martin N'Goga, Permanent Representative of Rwanda, and Your Excellency Pariyo Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia, co-facilitators of the process. Dr. Werner Obremeyer. Excellencies, distinguished delegates. The recent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the cases of the Andes antivirus aboard a cruise ship have reminded us why pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response matter so deeply. These outbreaks caused widespread public concern while illustrating a wider reality: emerging and re-emerging pathogens remain a persistent and serious global challenge. Unfortunately, that challenge is growing faster than our investment in preparedness, as reports suggest. Outbreaks are becoming more frequent, more complex, and harder to contain, while the systems designed to manage them are under exponential strain. This is a trajectory we must reverse. Our responses need to be faster, more coordinated, and more equitable. This requires concerted efforts across three areas, all of which depend on participation of you, the key stakeholders. First, it is imperative that we promise communities with limited access to surveillance, diagnostics, and countermeasures, because those most exposed to outbreaks are often the least equipped to detect, contain, and respond to them. In this regard, boosting support by civil society groups and regional and local healthcare networks is critical, for we cannot abandon those on the front lines of new outbreaks to manage alone. Especially when each local outbreak carries the risk of becoming a global— a wider global threat. Second, it is essential that we strengthen the sharing of data information. These are among the most important tools in pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. From early detection to rapid response, from data sharing to collaborative surveillance, We must use every tool available to strengthen the global system before the next emergency. Third, our efforts must be globally coordinated. As the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated so starkly, viruses do not respect borders. No country, regardless of its capacity, can contain a pandemic alone. Thus, multilateralism remains our first line of Defence. Excellencies, we should welcome recent progress, including the adoption of the World Health Organization pandemic agreement in 2025, which reflects a shared commitment to collective action. The final mile now lies in securing agreement on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing Annex and bringing the agreement into force. This would mark a critical step towards a fairer, more predictable, and more equitable global response architecture. But agreements alone are not enough. Effective pandemic governance depends on empowered and protected healthcare workforces, equitable access to medical countermeasures, interoperable global surveillance systems, and strong community engagement built on trust. Recent outbreaks, including Ebola, have shown what coordinating action can achieve. During the 2024 to 2025 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rapid collaboration among the World Health Organization, national authorities, civil society, and humanitarian partners enabled the deployment of more than 100 experts, the establishment of treatment centers within days, and the vaccination of teens— sorry, tens of thousands of people, helping to contain transmission swiftly. This is both multilateralism and multi-stakeholder engagement in action, built on the strength of many actors. Governments bring authority and responsibility, Civil society organizations bring community reach and trust. Academia brings research and evidence. Frontline responders bring practical expertise. The private sector brings innovation, logistics, and scale. As we prepare for the high-level meeting, this kind of multi-stakeholder engagement must remain at the center of our work. Pandemic resilience can be delivered— cannot be delivered by any single actor. It must be built across institutions, sectors, and communities before the next emergency arrives. Excellencies, decades of experience, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic, have taught us that outbreaks thrive where systems are weak. Where inequalities are wide and where trust is eroded. They have also taught us that preparedness costs far less than crisis response. Investments in surveillance, health workers, diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, and community engagement are investments in stability, development, and human security. We therefore have a clear responsibility to sustain political commitment, close gaps that leave communities exposed, and strengthen the multilateral cooperation on which all countries depend. Let these priorities guide us as we move towards this High-Level Meeting. Future outbreaks will come. Whether they become global crises will depend on the choices we make now. Let us not delude ourselves into thinking that this cannot happen again, nor force ourselves to relearn the hard lessons. Let us instead apply those lessons where they matter most: in saving lives, preventing pandemics, and preparing before they occur. I now invite participants to view a pre-recorded statement by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Director-General of the World Health Organization.

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends. Greetings from Kampala, where I have spent the past 2 days meeting political leaders, partners and health workers to support Uganda's response to the current Ebola outbreak. Last week, I was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where I traveled to the epicenter of the outbreak in the province of Ituri, the city of Bunia. Last month, I was in Tenerife supporting the safe disembarkation of passengers and crew from the MV Hondius, after the hantavirus outbreak on the ship. In each case, the situation is different and the response is different, but the principles are the same: solidarity, equity, and cooperation. No country can respond to a pandemic alone. Shared threats require a shared response. Strong national systems remain the foundation, but they depend on international solidarity and multilateral cooperation to function effectively. The COVID-19 pandemic killed documented more than 7 million and estimated with excess mortality 20 million people and exposed major weaknesses and inequities in the global system. Since then, WHO has taken concrete steps improve surveillance, expand equitable access to medical countermeasures, and strengthen pathogen sharing, accountability, emergency workforce capacity, and sustainable financing. Member States have also adopted amendments to the International Health Regulations and adapted the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The final remaining piece of the puzzle is the pathogen access and Benefit Sharing System, the PABS Annex. But the next pandemic will not wait for us. That's why this year's high-level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response is so important. A strong political leadership with concrete commitments and targets is essential. The outbreaks of Ebola and hantavirus remind us that the risk of epidemics and pandemics is a constant threat. The current outbreak of Ebola in DRC is the 17th in that country. Under the leadership of the government, we will end this outbreak just as we have ended the 16 previous outbreaks. It's just a matter of how quickly we can do it. The true measure of success, however, is what we do to prevent the 18th outbreak or the 19th. We must break the cycle of panic and neglect. We must change the game. Thank you all for your commitment to doing that and building a healthier, safer, fairer world. I thank you.

I thank the Director-General of the World Health organization. I now invite Her Excellency Ms. Joy Phumaphi, co-chair of the Global Preparedness and Monitoring Board and former Minister of Health of Botswana, to make a statement.

Thank you, Madam President. Your Excellency, President of the UNGA, Your Excellencies, co-facilitators, Excellency DG of the WHO, Excellencies PRS, Members of Member States, colleagues, and friends, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, GPMB, is honored to participate in this event. The GPMB has spent the last 8 years objectively assessing the available evidence and monitoring pandemic preparedness and accountability around the globe. In 2019, just months before COVID-19 emerged, our report warned of the threat posed by a rapidly spreading respiratory pathogen and the consequences of failing to prepare. 3 years ago, we urged leaders to turn the lessons of COVID-19 into sustained political action. That remains just as relevant and urgent today, as we have seen in the last few weeks with Ebola and, of course, hantavirus. Today, the world has fundamentally changed. We face greater geopolitical fragmentation, tighter fiscal space, erosion of trust, conflict, climate pressures, and rapid technological change. Preparedness efforts must therefore adapt to this reality. The adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the amended International Health Regulations and the strengthening of the Pandemic Fund are important milestones, but they are not the end of the process. They are the beginning of implementation. Each DRC Ebola outbreak presents different challenges, but after 17 outbreaks, certain problems should no longer surprise us. Communities are still losing trust. People are still resisting response efforts. Health facilities are still being attacked. This is not the people's fault. It is a collective failure to learn and act on lessons that have been available to us for years to build trust, to break the cycle of panic and neglect. The lesson is that pandemic preparedness in each sector must evolve. A second high-level meeting only 3 years after the first matters. It reflects both the growing agency of pandemic risk and recognition that progress cannot wait another decade. Governments do not wait for war to begin before investing in defense. They prepare because they understand the cost and consequences of being unprepared. Why do we not apply the same logic to pandemics? Pandemic preparedness is not a competing health priority. It is building national resilience. It protects populations, grows economies, delivers health services, and social stability. Just 3 weeks ago, the GPMB launched its final assessment of global preparedness, A World on the Edge. The report presents a stark conclusion: preparedness efforts are not keeping pace with risk— the rising pandemic risk. It is not a conclusion we reached lightly. Drawing on 10 years of data and lessons from successive public health emergencies, the report identifies 3 priorities that could help guide the political declaration. First, monitoring of pandemic risk is critical. Second, equitable access to medical countermeasures is essential to break the cycle of neglect. To prevent and panic and to restore trust. Third, sustainable financing for preparedness and response is essential. All three build trust and all three depend on sustained political attention and leadership. The single greatest gap in the preparedness architecture is global monitoring of pandemic risk. Not prioritized at the 2023 High-Level Meeting, risk monitoring must be addressed this time. Leaders urgently require a clear picture of how pandemic risk is evolving and whether preparedness commitments are reducing that risk. The GPMB is concluding its mandate this year. Other COVID-era monitoring processes are also winding down, and no equivalent mechanism is currently positioned to take their place. Without comprehensive monitoring, political leaders, policymakers, and the public risk losing the ability to identify emerging threats, track implementation, and maintain political attention between crises. Such monitoring underpins both themes of this high-level meeting. It can promote accountability for equitable access while strengthening the evidence base for action, investments, and cooperation across governments, sectors, and stakeholders. At the same time, equitable access to medical countermeasures and sustainable financing for preparedness must remain central to the global agenda. Preparedness cannot succeed if life-saving tools remain inaccessible. Or if financing appears only after emergencies have begun, it must appear before the emergencies. Ultimately, all three priorities depend on sustained political leadership. The central barrier today is not lack of evidence, lack of expertise, or lack of tools. It is the political will to act before crisis forces action. The 2026 High-Level Meeting therefore presents an opportunity not simply to reaffirm commitments, but to establish how they will be monitored, how they will be reviewed and acted upon in the years ahead. The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board's final assessment concludes that the world is on the edge, but it is not without our options. The trajectory can still be changed. And this— as this hearing begins, let us build on our collective experience and use this opportunity to chart together how that trajectory is changed through a strong, actionable, and forward-looking political declaration. I thank you, Madam President.

I thank Her Excellency for the statement. I now give the floor to His Excellency Martin Ngoga, Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations and co-facilitator for the intergovernmental negotiation of the Political Declaration of the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response High-Level Meeting.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam President. Excellencies, distinguished delegates. At the outset, allow me to express my sincere appreciation to you for convening today's interactive multi-stakeholder hearing and for your continued leadership in ensuring that pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response remains firmly on the agenda of the General Assembly. I would also like to thank Dr. Tedros as well as Her Excellency Joy for their valuable contributions today. It is an honor to address this hearing in my capacity as a co-facilitator, together with Armenia, of the intergovernmental negotiations on the political declaration for the 2026 High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. The strong participation in this hearing reflects the importance attached to this agenda. I thank you all for being here and for underscoring that effective pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response requires a multi-sectoral, whole-of-government, and whole-of-society effort with equity at its core. This is one of the enduring lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, ongoing outbreaks, including Ebola and hantavirus, remind us why this discussion remains so urgent and why the process ahead matters. Since our appointment, Ambassador Paruyir and myself have been engaging with the member states, stakeholders, and partners in order to listen carefully and to better understand the perspectives that should inform this process. As co-facilitators, our intention is to conduct a process that is inclusive, transparent, and consultative—one that reflects present realities, recognizes both progress made and gaps that remain, and takes into account existing mechanisms initiatives, and processes with a view to strengthening and complementing them. Our objective is to help shape a political declaration that is concise, action-oriented, and inclusive, and that can sustain political momentum towards stronger pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. In that context, it is also important to underline that this process should provide political support to the broader PPPR agenda without reiterating issues that are being addressed in other relevant settings. The value of the high-level meeting will lie in helping reinforce political momentum, support implementation, and strengthen coherence across the wider PPPR landscape. Today's hearing is therefore of particular importance. It offers an opportunity to hear directly from stakeholders on how commitments can translate into stronger capacities in practice, including through stronger national systems, better surveillance and early warning, sustained investment in the workforce, and financing that supports implementation on the ground. It also offers an opportunity to reflect on preparedness across the full continuum, including prevention and response, as well as on the role of multisectoral approaches such as One Health, the resilience of production and supply systems, local and regional manufacturing capacity, and how preparedness can and how preparedness efforts can remain anchored in national priorities while supported by effective cooperation and timely resources. In that point, we look forward to hearing your views, your concerns, and your recommendations as work continues ahead. While COVID-19 may now feel like a distant memory, the lessons it left behind remain is as urgent as ever. We should not lose sight of what the pandemic revealed, including the costs of unpreparedness, the consequences of inequity, and the importance of solidarity and cooperation. It is our hope that today's discussion will help carry those lessons forward into strong action and more effective collective preparedness for the future. As Dr. Tedros has reminded us many times, nobody is safe until everyone is safe. That remains a simple truth that continues to capture both the urgency of this agenda and the responsibility we share. Thank you for your attention.

I thank His Excellency for the statement. As indicated in the program, This interactive multi-stakeholder hearing also consists of two panel discussions and a closing segment. The first panel discussion, entitled Multilateralism for Equitable Access: The World Together for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response, will be moderated by Her Excellency Ms. Matthew Jolini, distinguished diplomat in residence of the UN Foundation and former Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, and will take place immediately following this segment. The second panel discussion, entitled Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Society Approaches: Predictable and Sustainable Capacities and Financing for Strengthened Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response, will be moderated by Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Al Khouri, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Qatar and former Minister of Health and Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the WHO Pandemic Agreement, and will take place this afternoon from 3 PM to 5:30 PM. The closing segment will take place immediately thereafter, Moderated by His Excellency Poreh Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations and co-facilitator of the Intergovernmental Negotiation of Political Declaration of the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response High-Level Meeting. The opening segment is now concluded. I now invite the moderator and panelists to take their seats on the podium for Panel Discussion 1. Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning. Okay, good morning. Good morning, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. It is my honor to be The moderator for the first of the two interactive panels today. The framing of this morning's discussion, the first panel, is Multilateralism for Equitable Access: The World Together for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response. And as we've just heard from this morning's inputs, pandemics continue to pose health threats to communities around the world. I think all speakers reminded us, using the current outbreaks, of the risk that is still there. And I had two of them talk about the fact that we need to stop the cycle of panic and neglect, as they call it. Global cooperation is the only definitive mechanism to help us coordinate effective international responses to these health crises.. And again, as it's been said repeatedly, because pathogens cross borders effortlessly, weaknesses in public health infrastructure of one nation exposes the global population to biological and economic risks. So this makes equity our theme today, equity of access to the whole value chain of PPPR, to countermeasures and to finance, ever more important. I will also encourage all of us to look through the report that Madam Phumaphi spoke about, the one that has just been released 3 weeks ago, and the fact that it has concrete recommendations of what can be considered in the political declaration. Our panel this morning explores the developments in governance that have sought to strengthen cooperation on pandemics since the first high-level meeting in 2023, including the adoption of the important pandemic agreement last May. We will discuss how multilateral and multisectoral collaboration continues to evolve and consider technical ways to strengthen and sustain these efforts. I was I was— it did caught my mind, the fact that the geopolitics have changed and they've impacted this field as well, and therefore we need to adjust how and adapt how we respond to this. To help our discussion, we are joined by an esteemed panel of experts, and I'm honored to introduce Her Excellency Antlé Amproux, the Global Health Ambassador of France and former co-chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body in Geneva; Ms. Lijia Noronha, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of New York Office at the United Nations Environment Programme; Ms. Tirana Hassan, CEO of Medicine Sun Frontiers; and Mr. Alessandro Motta, Senior Advisor of Economic and Social Affairs at the Parliamentary Union. As you can see, this is a wonderfully diverse and experienced panel, and I myself look forward to hearing their insights but also your inputs, and we'll do that in just a moment. So before giving them the floor, I would like to inform all of us participants that those wishing to take the floor during the interactive discussion are kindly requested to scan the QR code displayed on the screen. I'm not sure if it is displayed yet, or approach the Secretariat if you're not able to scan. I don't see it on the screen. Participants may also indicate their wish to speak starting now by pressing using the microphone button. Participants may indicate their— actually, you can indicate now. You can press now, and the event staff are available around the room to provide guidance and instructions to selected speakers. Those selected will be called to speak once the floor is open. For the interactive discussion. Please note that inputs are limited to 2 minutes. 2 minutes, I know it's too short. I wish it was 3, but it's 2 minutes. So to start the discussion, I'm honored to give the floor to Ambassador Entle. Ambassador, you bring to this table considerable experience in global health at both national and global level. You led the— France's response to COVID-19. And in Geneva, you've negotiated the PPPR issue at length, but also serving in leadership role, helping to build consensus across different stakeholders, sectors, and negotiating blocks in your capacity as the co-chair. So while the important work continues and is still continuing, as we had tremendous efforts, however, led to the adoption of the pandemic agreement. In your view, what is the significance of this outcome for bolstering collaboration across levels of government, sectors, and disciplines at global regional and national level? In fact, I'm going to ask you two questions for all panel members at the same time. The second question, in your view, what is the significance— sorry, the second question really is about implementation. As we move from norm setting to implementation, can you give us examples of initiatives that are already helping translating those international norms and international commitments into action? So, two questions to you. Over to you.

Thank you, thank you very much, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. First of all, thank you for the invitation and thank you for your questions. I'm honored to be here, as you said, as a former co-chair of the INB and as French Ambassador for Global Health. Actually, we meet today at a very critical moment for global health and for multilateral cooperation, especially for for PPR. The recent years have been marked by a succession of interconnected crises—health, economic, environmental, and geopolitical—that have exposed both our vulnerabilities and our interdependence. But despite these challenges, I think we can say that there is a positive story to tell. Which is multilateralism. Because over the past 5 years, the international community has built the foundation for a stronger global PPR architecture. And too often, discussions on PPR and response focus primarily on what remains to be done, and that's normal. But I would like to emphasize also what has been already achieved. And that's your first question. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the international community has delivered an unprecedented set of reforms, such as the Pandemic Fund, to give a financial tool for preparedness and to put pandemic preparedness at the center of the international economic and financial agenda. And as you said, the adoption of the pandemic agreement one year ago after the adoption of the amendments of the International Health Regulations. And it's a combination which is very useful and we shouldn't forget. So these are not symbolic achievements. They are concrete demonstrations that multilateralism can deliver equity through a cross-cutting approach and I will give you a few examples. First, if we look at the pandemic agreement, the Article 4, which establishes a framework for prevention and surveillance, that means promoting risk assessment and early detection capacities. And again, if we look at the Ebola outbreak, we can see the relevance of this article. Second example is Article 5, which encores the One Health approach for the first time in international law, recognizing that many emerging infectious diseases originate at the interface between human, animal, and environmental health. And these provisions encourage countries to move beyond crisis response and invest in prevention. The agreement, the pandemic agreement, also responds directly to one of the most visible inequities of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unequal access to medical countermeasures. And again, few examples. The Article 11 of the pandemic agreement establishes a framework for technology transfer and cooperation, encouraging the sharing of knowledge, technical expertise.. And together with the provisions on local and geographically diversified production in Article 10, it provides a concrete pathway towards a more resilient and more equitable global production ecosystem, and it's key and it was necessary. And of course, Article 12, mentioned by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the DG of WHO, earlier, which establishes the pathogen access and benefit sharing. System, the PAPS, which is one of the agreement's most innovative mechanisms. And in addition, and that will be my last example, is Article 13, which establishes a global supply chain and logistics network, which is very important because it is a mechanism designed to address one of the most significant shortcomings revealed by the COVID-19 pandemics. The network aims to improve the timely availability and equitable distribution of pandemic-related health products during health emergencies. So, in other words— and I will stop the list here because it's long. The pandemic agreement has 35 articles, so I will not give you the 35 articles, don't worry, but just a few examples to show that we have building blocks of effective PPR. They have already been identified, negotiated, and agreed upon. It doesn't mean that our work is over. Far from it, definitely. But we now possess the tools, institutions, and political commitments needed to make meaningful progress, and our challenge now is to implement them. So it's to finish the work with the PAPS Annex. And to answer to your second question shortly about examples of initiatives that are already helping translate international commitments into action, I will give you 4 examples. The first one is about the Ebola outbreak and how the amended IHR has been used, because we have sometimes forgotten. First, the emergency the IHR Committee mechanism was activated, enabling the Director-General of WHO to issue temporary recommendations under the IHR. And at the same time, the outbreak illustrated the importance of international solidarity and cooperation with technical assistance, expertise, and operational support mobilized through the framework established by the IHR. It's a second example. It's not enough, but at least a few examples of this translation. And the second example is the recent One Health Summit hosted by France in Lyon, which illustrates precisely the shift we now need to make from non-setting to implementation. And for example, the summit delivered concrete outcomes, including the announcement by UNITED, which is a multilateral organization, of a Therapeutics Development Coalition, especially aimed at improving access to treatments in the field. And the second outcome is the signature of the One Health Data Convergence Declaration of Intent, which will strengthen the collection and sharing of data, and we know that it is very important. So these experiences show that maybe we need to spend time Maybe not to reopen debates that have already been settled, but rather implement the commitments we have already made, and that should be the objective, of course, of the HLM, but also the negotiation of the PAP/SANEX taking place in Geneva. We need to conclude this negotiation. So I will stop here. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ambassador. I think you're making it very clear that the building blocks are there, they've been agreed upon, and all that we need to do now is to implement. And hopefully when we negotiate that political declaration, we'll have to find ways of measures of implementation. But thank you for those articles that you've highlighted that demonstrate in a very strong way what has been achieved. So now I'm pleased to go to our next speaker, a colleague de colleague, Ligia. You have also worked at national and regional level, you know, in Asia, in India, with both health issues but also with development issues., and in your current position, you have ensured that that nexus between a healthy planet and collective well-being is brought sharply into intergovernmental processes here, but also in the broader UN, the wider system, and ensuring coordination amongst different agencies. So from the environmental perspective, what do you think are the key barriers and challenges which continue to compromise global health security? And what do you think is the role of regional and global cooperation? And as you reflect on that, give us some— what can be considered to take into the political declaration? Then the second question is on that One Health approach that Ambassador spoke to. Can you tell us what the role of the Quadripartite is in making sure that that one approach is brought into PPEA? Over to you.

Thank you so much, Ambassador. Excellencies, fellow panelists, stakeholders, first of all, I'm absolutely delighted to be here today and to be able to be very much part of this conversation. Environment and health has been something that has been center stage to my own professional career, and, and so this makes it really exciting. And we've heard the narrative from Ambassador Ampru, and we've heard that we have been making a lot of movement forward, and that's great to know, but it's really important to reinstate again and again that pandemics are not random events. They really arise from multiple interconnected forces across social, ecological, and environmental systems, and these are very much interconnected. So I wouldn't want to just pull out the environment, but also show that these environmental issues are so interlinked with the economic and the social. And inequity remains at the heart and central to any pandemic-related global health insecurity. And we cannot really take away these inequity issues because these become very central to any responses. The disadvantaged, women and children, the vulnerable, the gender roles in households, any responses to pandemics get affected by these. And so having these center stage are so important. When you come to the environmental degradation, this is a major driver of risk, of pandemic risk, and it— you cannot avoid pulling it out and paying attention to it, because if you look at biodiversity, Losses, for example, over 75% of emerging infectious diseases, whether it's Ebola or Nipah, the viruses arise in areas with significantly disrupted ecosystems and habitats. That's telling us something. That's telling us what we need to do. Invasive alien species contribute to 60% of global plant and animal extinctions and create novel pathways to which this transmission happens. Therefore, we need to focus attention on that. 99% of the global population breathes air which exceeds air quality limits, and that creates a greater vulnerability to any kind of respiratory pandemics of viruses that are flying around. Antimicrobial resistance is already a pandemic-scale threat, driven in part by environmental contamination, but also by unsustainable consumption and production of across the production of antimicrobials, across the life cycle of antimicrobials. So the environment can act as a medium for transmission, but the deeper problem often lies upstream, how microbials, for example, are produced, used, and discarded. And therefore, strong multilateral cooperation needs to also take this into account. Whatever we say, prevention is the most cost-effective mechanism to reduce pandemic risk, and closing the upstream prevention gap is critical. But when we think in terms of what needs to go into the political considerations— into the political declaration, our suggestions would focus around prioritizing equitable outcomes, including access to health products and services, stronger national and local capacity to shape research and influence policy, but ensuring that everyone is safe, as the DG Tedros has been saying over and over again. We must recognize that environmental degradation is a major driver of pandemic risk, a shared global threat, and therefore protecting and restoring nature is only— and not only an environmental priority, but a global health imperative. Now, when you come to include— to multilateral governance around PPPR, We need to make this inclusive. We need to prioritize coherence and agility by bringing together governments, UN entities, non-state stakeholders in structured processes that address complex challenges, which strengthen legitimacy, build trust, and mobilize diverse expertise and resources. The high-level meeting offers us an opportunity to move beyond commitments to concentrate actions, including emphasizing that the health of planet, animals, and people are very linked and indivisible. To recognize that prevention is the most effective mechanism to address environmental degradation as a key driver of disease emergence and outlining operational commitments on the promotion of ecosystem restoration and health. Translating the relevant multilateral agreements into key actions, including by aligning PPPR activities with the Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health and strengthening linkages with national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and ensuring environmental authorities have an equal place on the governance table. But let me go, Ambassador, to the next question that you asked us: what is the role of the Quadripartite Agencies, which is really a fantastic instrument to take forward the One Health approach by bringing together these four agencies: FAO, UNEP, WHO, and the World Organization for Environmental Health. And this is really important because you bring in together this collaboration, this connection across the economic, social, environmental, and animal to bring together the kind of responses that is required. It promotes a generation sharing and the use of science and evidence, and it supports eight global communities of practice under the FAO-led One Health Knowledge Nexus. That's a huge access to information that is available. The Quadripartite also plays an active role in global policy and advocacy, raising awareness of the importance of coordinated action across the human-animal and ecosystem interface to reduce health risks. And the Quadripartite broadens the concept of preparedness beyond emergency response.— it supports countries to understand and manage the ecological, animal health, and social factors that can lead to crises in the first place. In this framework, the key contributions to preparedness that this quadripartite agency can and is doing is to focus on early detection and surveillance, risk prevention at source, cross-sectoral coordination, and national preparedness planning. Capacity building, and antimicrobial— actions on antimicrobial resistance, and pandemic preparedness and prevention through the One Health Joint Plan of Action. As Ambassador Ambru mentioned, at the One Health Summit in Lyon, there were many deliverables which came up. I won't go into those details now, but should you be interested, I can come up with them in the next round. Thank you very much, Ambassador.

Thank you very much for that input. I myself have learned a thing or two about that. I mean, the fact that you made this emphatic fact that pandemics are not random events, it's about the systems that are interconnected. That issue about biodiversity loss being one of the primary issues that we need to look at and therefore want to in our solutions to be thinking of how do we restore, how do we restore nature. And so thank you for those inputs and your thoughts on the One Health that demonstrates what a number of agencies can come together and do, access to science and generation of new knowledge together. So that's quite helpful. So thank you. I now move to our third speaker. Ms. Hassan, you— that side. Ms. Hassan, you have a long history working with— in humanitarian and human rights spaces and leading frontline emergency responses and helping communities survive in very difficult circumstances and really challenging context. In your current role, your work is deeply focused on communities and people at the center of PPPR. Can you help us understand effective means of community engagement? What does it look like in practice? So that'll be question 1. And the second question, share with us how we can strengthen frontline systems to ensure readiness and resilience and how we can effectively advance this issue, again, in the political declaration.

Over to you.

Thank you so much. And I think maybe before you're— before starting, I want to genuinely thank Your Excellencies, my fellow panelists, for creating the space for Médecins Sans Frontières to participate in today's panel. Before I get into the specifics of the questions that were asked, which are very important and central to the work of Médecins Sans Frontières in responding to pandemics, I'd like to offer a little bit of a reflection, because for MSF, we stand today as witnesses to the stark reality of the ongoing outbreak of the Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus in the DRC and Uganda. Now, unfortunately, what we are missing and what we are witnessing, it shows that there is a fundamental and persistent fracture in our global preparedness systems, and as a result, the consequences are deadly. Specifically, following the Bundabugyo virus outbreak of 2007 and 2012, experts clearly identified the need for broader diagnostics for the Ebola disease. Yet, nearly 15 years later, we still face limited availability of diagnostic tools and a lack of authorized therapeutics and vaccines. It's not because the science is beyond reach, but it's because the international community did not sufficiently prioritize these in the years following the last outbreaks. This is not the first time we have faced these challenges. During the 2014 West Africa outbreak, at the start of the 2018 outbreak in the DRC, there were no approved therapeutics or vaccines. In 2018, MSF was a partner in the PALM trials, which led to the licensing of two effective treatments for Ebola virus disease. And yet, here we sit, 8 years later, rely— we sit 8 years later, reliable and sustained access to their treatments still remains highly inequitable. And to put it another way, the populations that had to suffer the outbreaks to permit the licensing of these products still do not have guarantees that they will benefit from them during the next outbreak. These— this falls short of our promises to these populations, and it doesn't promote the trust that we need from these communities during outbreaks like the one we're currently facing. We shouldn't have to wait for another outbreak to address this. The 2023 Declaration committed us to moving from words to action, from voluntary measures to enforceable mechanisms. But as new R&D initiatives mobilize in response to the BDBV, as clinical trials are being launched, we actually repeat— risk repeating the same patterns that have failed us before. This is where the pathogen access and benefit sharing systems become urgent, not as an abstract policy, but as a concrete mechanism determining— that determines whether what we learn from this outbreak will actually protect future affected communities. So, what MSF is calling for, and I think more importantly what the evidence demands from us, is clear. First, we must put affected communities in the driver's seat. When research and development happens in response to disease outbreaks in low-middle-income countries, those countries and the communities must have a real voice in how the research unfolds. Clinical trials should should protect participants. No company should be able to shut down a trial and leave patients without treatment. Communities who participate in the trials should have guaranteed access to treatments afterwards. And then when treatments are approved, it should be registered and available in the countries where the disease actually occurs, and that should not it be years later. Secondly, make the commitments real and enforceable. When governments and donors fund research, that funding should come with real strings attached, not requests but requirements. Publicly funded research should— research should result in tools that are affordable and available in the countries that need them. When affected communities share virus samples and data to help the development of treatment, they should then have an ironclad guarantee of access to what gets developed. And if companies don't hold up their end of the bargain, then governments need to— the power to be able to step in and ensure the treatments reach patients. And thirdly, let— Everybody see what is happening. Transparency about prices, about where treatments are stockpiled, about timelines for approval and supply. All of this information should be public. Affected communities and countries need to know what is being promised to them and when they can expect to receive it. Accountability only works when there is transparency. But I want to be direct about something that goes even deeper than just these three asks. In our humanitarian work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in South Sudan, in Central African Republic, and in Gaza, we have learned something fundamental. The communities where disease outbreaks occur are not problems to be solved from above. They are the solution. When we work in conflict-affected areas, the fragile health systems— in fragile health systems in remote regions, we see communities doing the work that saves lives. They are the ones identifying the cases. They are preventing transmission. They are taking care of the sick. They understand the terrain, the culture, and the trust networks that matter. Yet, in re— when research and development happens, When global health decisions are made, these communities are invited to listen and not lead. The 2023 Declaration committed to a whole-of-society approach and to meaningful participation. We need to mean that. It's not good enough to consult with affected communities. They must be at the table making decisions about which tools are being developed. They need to be at the table when we're talking about how research happens in their countries and what happens to participants after trials end and how treatments get delivered to the places where the outbreaks occur. In conflict settings, this is not optional. Today's Bundabugyo outbreak reminds us that the heart of any response response are the communities who are experiencing it. The local health workers we rely on to detect the initial cases, the political and cultural leaders who facilitate access in their communities, the families supporting their loved ones. They are the people that should be at the centre. Externally designed interventions not only fail in these contexts, they endanger the response. But interventions co-designed with communities and frontline health workers, with local leadership, with the people who know the context— these work. We know. We're seeing it in real time. Communities have shown us again and again they are essential to a successful outbreak response. And for this to work, respect for international law, and unhindered humanitarian access must be non-negotiable. Diseases do not respect conflict lines, and our ability to respond depends on the ability of humanitarian personnel to reach those in need. The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda are watching us. Can we promise them we will truly commit to fundamentally changing how this works? Can we truly commit to them and promise that they will be treated as true partners in research, not as a source of data or samples and risks while the benefits go elsewhere? The international community has adopted the Pandemic Agreement and amended the International Health Regulations. These instruments create frameworks that we need, but translating those commitments into tangible outcomes requires one more thing: the political will to genuinely share power with the communities that are most affected. I think the communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda deserve an answer grounded in that kind of action and not voluntary pledges. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. And it's interesting listening to you and also making the connection of what Ambassador Ampu said about the basics that are there in place, but you are also highlighting that there's a fracture in the global preparedness system. The fact that 15 years later we still don't have diagnostics, no treatment, to what could have been, you know, 15 years later, it should be— we should be in a different place. And you say same patterns that have failed us before, we need to look out for those. And what you said about communities, it will be interesting how it makes its way into the political declaration about really them being the solution and not being the problem. The problem that we are going to solve, all that you said about research and development, clinical trials, and treatment for those that have been involved in those trials. I think it's a mouthful that we really need to reflect on, so thank you for that output. And I now move to our last panelist, Mr. Motta. You are at IPU and and through your work there as an advisor, you have really worked tirelessly to ensure that parliamentarians around the world focus on sustainable development, on economic governance, and on social policy issues. And as we all know, parliamentarians are quite crucial in our own environments to ensure that governments comply, that oversight role that they play. Play. In this instance, what is the role of national parliamentarians, national parliaments, in ensuring that global commitments are aligned with and implemented at the national level? So that question, the first question. The second question, what can parliaments and parliamentarians do in the area of promoting accountability through strengthening and unifying PPPR monitoring? And monitoring also came up earlier. That monitoring that is country-specific, as the PR of Rwanda reminded us, country-specific, and then leads to strong and resilient national systems. So those are the two questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Ambassador. We are a good 25 minutes late, so instead of reading my prepared remarks, I'll just give you a straightforward answer the way I see it, if I could. We all know basically what is the role of parliaments when it comes to the implementation of international agreements like the pandemic agreement or the 2020 2023 declaration of the high-level meeting, and that is to translate those global commitments into national legislation and budget allocations and to hold the governments' feet to the fire. It's called oversight. So we can get into the technicalities of this, but I think that would be sort of beyond the scope of this discussion. That is the basic framework of what's under which we operate. Certainly, there's been a lot of progress since— in the years since the last terrible pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic. We heard at the global level with new agreements, new initiatives, and also in countries. This has to be acknowledged., but we are very far behind as well, both in terms of resources and, we heard a few times, political will. The political will is where the ultimate— the acid test is how far we're going to go into the pandemic response. So what can parliaments and parliamentarians do, because parliaments are not just the buildings, the people inside are the ones that actually make the difference. I would say the first of all is precisely to get over the daily politicking and politics so that realizing this is not a bargaining chip in the political game, but a question of life or death, both in your own countries and around the world. So we need to elevate this issue to the vital issue that it is and it deserves to be. And this takes me to a second point, the long-term perspective. Politicians are given to a short-term view. That is dictated by the electoral cycle. And sometimes I have to say also short memories of what happened just a few years before. And that's not— that's just human frailty and also the way national systems are set up. So you have to worry, respond, respond to what your constituents feel is most urgent to them at that— that day, the day after, tomorrow, now. So it could be inflation, it could be rising affordability crisis, it could be taxes, all kinds of things. So a pandemic that is not here yet always takes a second seat, let's say, or back seat in your priorities based on what your constituents are saying. So as politicians and parliamentarians have this responsibility to keep this issue on the agenda. And I would say the best way to do this is to institutionalize the issue, realizing that there's always turnover in Parliament and that you will not be there for the next 30 years. I mean, some parliamentarians may survive that long, but generally there is a much high turnover in parliaments. And so the best thing you can do is to institutionalize the issue. This is also what we do and we recommend to our members when— with respect to the SDGs. Create an SDG committee or a caucus, a group that can work across sectors in parliament, because this is, as we heard, an integrated— it requires an integrated approaches includes also an environmental dimension. And we see this in our experience because we also have a lot of focus, a strong focus on climate change. We see how that issue of resilience ultimately has links directly to health issues of all sorts that also nurture our breeding ground for pandemics. Another point I want to make is the very important distinction between looking at pandemic preparedness as a cost as opposed to an investment. And here is really the old adage that an ounce of cure is better than a pound of— of what's the expression, Dijon? Of solutions. Of solutions, exactly. So it always seems cheaper— what seems cheaper to do often is actually the most costly thing to do. So we need to revert that— reverse that equation in capitals around the world and stop looking at health, the whole health sector, and particularly and including this question of pandemic preparedness as a cost. This is a fundamental investment. It's one of the most important that you can make as a government. Another point is— it sounds banal, but it's actually very important for us since we're also talking about multilateralism. For us, it's important to have parliamentarians talk across borders, not to just dwell in your own national context, but learn from each other across borders, and so that you don't rely only on on information that comes from your government, but you also see what's going on in your region and around the world, and you learn from lessons that they have applied in other parliaments and other jurisdictions. This is really what we're trying to do. That's the whole point of the IPU, really, is that interparliamentary dialogue, and we have a long list of initiatives and processes to facilitate this dialogue, including, of course, with the WHO, with which we have a great partnership. And one manifestation of this is the annual Global Parliamentary Forum that we hold at the— within the context of the World Health Assembly. And this year's forum was all on pandemic prevention. So also, look— talk to each other across borders, but also look to the UN, to the leadership of the WHO and the IPU, because there is a lot that parliamentarians can absorb directly from the international sphere instead of depending on sometimes the limited information that they get from their own governments when it comes to what are the commitments that have been made globally and what needs to be done to carry them forward. So I completely trashed my remarks. I just went freewheeling, and hopefully I managed to convey a few points for discussion.

Thank you. Absolutely. That freewheel indeed worked, and I think it's, as you said, it's about ensuring legislation, but also budget allocation because at the end of the day it's about money. And I like what you said about the nature of parliamentarians, the short-sightedness, but it's really because the system— and one way of dealing with that is to institutionalize this. And it's not just this issue but other issues that sometimes when the urgent issues that your constituencies are looking at, this is likely to be not to be prioritized, but if you have institutionalized it, then you are able to keep working on it systematically and in the long-term planning of governments. And then lastly, the point that you make about the importance of multilateralism, having a regional view and the global view. So, yes, your free— your free willing, it worked. Thank you for that. Okay, Excellencies. Panel members, thank you very much, and I'm now going to move to open the floor. And I've been asked to make an announcement. Yes, we can proceed with the ones that are— okay. All right, our first intervention would come from the Permanent Representative representative of Angola. Ambassador, you have the floor.

Madam Moderator, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. Angola commends the Office of the President of the General Assembly, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, for convening this important event in preparation for the High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. We thank the panelists for their insightful remarks. Excellencies, the COVID-19 pandemic reminded us that health emergencies do not respect borders. No country, regardless of its level of development, can address pandemic threats alone. Threatening global health security therefore requires solidarity, international cooperation, and sustained partnerships among governments, international organizations, financial institutions, the private sector, and communities. In this context, Angola has made important progress in strengthening its capacities for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. Through support of the Pandemic Fund, Angola has invested in strengthening disease surveillance systems, expanding laboratory and diagnostic capacities, enhancing multisectorial coordination mechanisms to better detect, prevent, and respond to public health threats. The establishment of a national network of public health emergency operation centers and the strengthening of early warning systems have improved our ability to identify and respond rapidly to outbreaks and other health emergencies. These efforts are complemented by investments in community-based surveillance, rapid response teams, and the training of health personnel. With the support of partners, including the World Health Organization and UNICEF, Angola continues to implement integrated strategies that combine immunization, surveillance, risk communication, and community engagement with particular attention to the vulnerable populations and border health security. Excellencies, despite these advances, important challenges remain. Endemic and epidemic-prone diseases include malaria, cholera, poliomyelitis— continues to place significant pressure on our health system. Sustained investment in resilient health systems, primary healthcare, and essential public health capacities remain critical. Angola reaffirms its commitment to strengthening national and global preparedness, advancing One Health approach, and supporting international cooperation under the leadership of the World Health Organization. Together, we must build a more resilient, equitable, and coordinated global architecture capable of preventing, preparing, and responding to future pandemics. I thank you.

Thank you, Ambassador Francisco, and I now give the floor to Indonesia.

Thank you, Madam Moderator. Indonesia thanks the panelists for their valuable insights. COVID-19 may now feel like a distant memory. Daily life has returned to normal for many of us, and the sense of urgency that once united the world has gradually faded. Yet the lessons it taught us must not be forgotten. First, we have made important progress. The adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement shows that multilateralism can still deliver meaningful results when countries choose cooperation over division. Second, we must now build on this momentum by investing in resilience before the next crisis. A balanced approach across prevention, preparedness, and response is essential. Third, strengthening global resilience requires greater equity. This includes expanding regional manufacturing capacity, promoting technology transfer, and operationalizing a fair and effective pathogen access and benefit sharing system. So that the benefits of cooperation are shared by all. Excellencies, pandemics affect every sector of society and hit the most vulnerable the hardest. Preparedness must therefore remain a whole-of-government and whole-of-society effort, supported by sustainable and predictable financing. It also requires stronger policy coherence at the local, national, regional, and global levels to ensure that commitments translate into coordinated action. More than 7 million lives have been lost to COVID-19. Let this number remind us not only what we have endured, but also what we have achieved when we work together. The upcoming political declaration on PPPR is an important opportunity to renew political commitment and keep these lessons alive. It should reinforce equity, resilience, and solidarity. May it inspire us once again to choose solidarity over division, cooperation over complacency and preparedness over reaction.

I thank you. I thank the representative of Indonesia and I now give the floor to the representative of UNDRR.

Thank you, Madam Moderator. Excellencies, distinguished delegates and colleagues. Many of the health threats that affect our societies, including epidemics and pandemics, are biological hazards that can escalate into disasters of vast human, social, and economic consequence. At the same time, well-governed disaster risk reduction systems help prevent these hazards from becoming catastrophes by strengthening preparedness, early warning, and the resilience of the systems on which the communities depend. As Member States prepare to consider the zero draft, UNDRR would like to highlight a few central considerations. First, pandemic risks should be addressed within a multi-hazard framework. The Sendai Framework explicitly recognizes biological hazards, amongst them pandemics, epidemics, along— and natural and technological hazards. Integrating pandemic risks systematically into national and local disaster risk reduction strategies is fundamental, as ensuring coherence between national disaster risk reduction platforms reforms, national IHR authorities, and national One Health coordination mechanisms. Second, prevention must address the disaster-climate-health nexus at its source. Approximately 75% of new and emerging human infectious diseases originate in animals, and the drivers of spillover are deeply intertwined with climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. The Bangkok Principles adopted in 2016 to implement the health aspects of the Sendai Framework provide the established architecture connecting the health and disaster reduction communities. Third, resilient health systems and multi-hazard early warnings are the foundation of preparedness. Health systems are the first and last line of defense in any disaster. Investing in their resilience, together with the expansion of multi-hazard early warning offers some of the most cost-effective protection available. Pathogenics surveillance and cross-border health alerts should be explicitly recognized as the biological dimension of this architecture, aligned with the obligations of the amended International Health Regulations that are now in force. These considerations must translate into measurable action underpinned by financing, capacity building, and robust tools to monitor progress, including the Sendai Framework Monitor and national data systems. The UNDRR office stands ready to support an ambitious and prevention-oriented outcome and looks forward to working with member states, the co-facilitators, and entities who are involved.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that input. Just a reminder that the time limit is 2 minutes. So far we haven't had 2 minutes, so I would appeal for that. Our next speaker is the representative of GAVI.

Good morning. Thank you, Excellencies, Ambassadors, co-facilitators of the process of Rwanda, Georgia. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the to the hearing. This panel asks a fundamental question: how can multilateralism deliver equitable access when the next health emergency strikes? At Gavi, we've been at the heart of the response during the last pandemic, the COVID pandemic, with COVAX. And for Gavi, the answer starts with a renewed commitment to solidarity, collective responsibility and practical cooperation between stakeholders. Equitable access cannot be left to market dynamics or negotiated in the middle of the crisis. Member States should use the political declaration to affirm that access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics must be guided by public health needs not purchasing power. This requires clear rules, predictable mechanism, and shared accountability before the next pandemic begins. The adoption of the pandemic agreement and the amended International Health Regulations shows that member states have already chosen cooperation over fragmentation. The next step is to turn these frameworks into operating models for equity, one that finalizes the pathogen access and benefit sharing system, supports access and benefit sharing, and brings comparative advantages to— of each organization together in a coherent way within the framework of Global Health Architecture Reform. That also means investing in trust. Countries and communities that are more likely to cooperate, share information, and adopt new tools when they know that the benefits of science, surveillance, and innovation will be shared fairly. Equity is therefore not only a moral imperative, it's a condition for effective pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. As member states prepare to negotiate the 26th Political Declaration, the opportunity to safeguard PPPR as a global public good is here. A stronger multilateral system should clarify roles, reinforce complementarity, and ensure that no country is left waiting. Thank you.

Thank you to the representative of GAVI, and I now give the floor to the World Medical Association.

Thank you. I speak on behalf of the World Medical Association, representing physicians worldwide. For physicians, several priorities are essential. First, the outcome of this HLM must reinforce strong and binding commitments to strengthen the leadership of the World Health Organization, support transparent international collaboration, and ensure that all countries and regions have the capacity to detect, report, and respond to emerging threats. Second, equity must be operationalized. This means that access to vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, personal protective equipment, and other essential health products must be timely, affordable, and guided by public health needs. What is required is sustainable financing, regional and local production capacity, technology transfer, and benefit-sharing mechanisms that work in practice. Third, pandemic preparedness must include health workforce preparedness. Health professionals cannot be treated as an exhaust— an inexhaustible resource. Governments must invest in safe working conditions, adequate staffing, mental health support, training, and access to quality-assured protective equipment and countermeasures. Protecting health workers is not only an ethical duty, it's a requirement for health system resilience. Fourth, pandemic response must remain grounded in ethics, human rights, and public trust. Public health measures should be lawful, proportionate, evidence-based, and time-limited, and communities must be meaningfully engaged in developing them. Communication must be based in science and counter misinformation, disinformation. Fifth, preparedness must address the conditions that make outbreaks more likely and more damaging. This includes poverty, armed conflict, climate change, environmental degradation, and fragile health systems. A One Health approach linking human, animal, environmental health is this— therefore essential. Finally, physicians and medical associations must be recognized as core partners of PPR. They bring clinical expertise, community trust, and ethical responsibility. The high-level meeting is an opportunity to move those lessons learned forward and implement commitments. The World Medical Association urges member states to adopt an outcome that is equitable, accountable, adequately financed, and capable of protecting both communities and the health workers that serve them.

Thank you. Okay, I suppose that Klep says we hope member states will listen. Thank you for that input, and I now give the floor to Virus Watcher, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So, Virus Watcher, you have the floor.

Thank you, Your Excellencies. I'm here representing Virus Watcher. Our mission is to bring outbreak intelligence to the masses, democratize 24-hour access to information related to infectious disease, and allow public health information to flow from bottom up, not just from top to bottom. Capacity building and risk assessment methodology, we're here to help for that. Community has been discussed a lot here today, and that is exactly what we've built. We have alerted our community members about hantavirus going all the way back to February, and we all know exactly when this made major news. We have built all the tools needed for community engagement to allow users to post, alert, and engage with themselves, and to allow for information to come from bottom up to the top. Our system can be pointed at anything as long as we have the latitude and longitude coordinates. For example, we have full event tracking on World Cup and have generated risk postures on every match, including every city, FAN Festival. We don't think that we are part of the solution— we don't think we are the solution, but we would love to be a part of the solution. Thank you.

I thank the representative of Virus Watcher, and I now give the floor to the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Merci.

Thank you, Excellencies. It's true that The world is constantly facing recurrent epidemics and other public health problems which have a negative impact on human health, but the origins could be traced back to non-human sources. The appearance and spread of diseases are often linked to environmental factors, climate change, animal health, and other human activities such as travel, urbanization, and globalization. To tackle pandemics, the DRC has taken an approach, a One Health approach. It cuts across sectors and disciplines to tackle these emerging health threats and also re-emerging health— returning health threats. Excellencies, since Since 2011, the DRC has had a One Health platform, and we have a coordination committee that is tasked with facilitating the creation of national policies. It also coordinates and harmonizes the implementation of these policies, and it ensures follow-up too, to strengthen multidisciplinary cooperation across different sectors. Taking our One Health approach, the aim is to prevent, detect, and respond to epidemics. In the DRC, prevention and response to pandemics is something where we've had a lot of progress. We've been— we've better surveillance, we have decentralized our laboratories, and we've had very successful vaccination campaigns which have meant that the government can respond proactively reactively to outbreaks. Currently, our country is facing an Ebola outbreak in each of the country— in the east of the country. And for— to tackle this, we've been mobilizing financial and technical resources to tackle this. The government is also making efforts to support areas affected and to facilitate logistics. In terms of care provided and management, screening, and that has been established in airports and in North Kivu and Ituru. This here— I'd like to take this opportunity to commend the spirit of international solidarity to support our government's efforts. This has come from the WHO and international agencies. Who provides us with up-to-date surveillance and they deliver medical material very swiftly. Thank you very much.

Thank the representative of the DRC. And I now give the floor to the European Union.

Thank you, Chair. Excellencies, colleagues, I am honored to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its 27 member states. We thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this multi-stakeholder hearing in preparation of the 2026 High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. And thank you to all panelists for their interventions. At this critical juncture, we possess unprecedented tools, yet face fragmentation that undermines our collective security. We highlight 3 key priorities for the upcoming political declaration, and we look forward to the co-facilitation by Rwanda and Armenia. First, the declaration should strengthen efforts towards a more effective, coordinated global architecture while respecting national sovereignty and international rules. It must address gaps in global health security networks, ensuring regional and local actions complement rather than duplicate global systems. This requires enhanced cooperation amongst all stakeholders: UN agencies, global health initiatives, financial institutions, civil society, and the private sector, with the WHO as the coordinating authority. Each must operate within their mandates in partnership to avoid overlap and maximize impact. Second, we must accelerate implementation of existing legal and financial frameworks. The Declaration should promote adherence to the International Health Regulations, including the 2024 amendments for states that have accepted them, drive progress on finalizing the PABS Annex without prejudging outcomes to enable the Pandemic Agreement's signature and ratification. It should not contradict or undermine the amended IHRs and Pandemic Agreement provisions. Simultaneously, sustainable domestic, domestic resources for PPPR should support countries' transition to health sovereignty, complemented by international resources through coordinated deployment of existing instruments. Innovative financing mechanisms could also be considered. Third, accountability must underpin our efforts. We propose a global financial tracker for PPPR developed with partners to monitor spending and ensure transparency. Regular peer reviews and progress assessments will keep us on track. With limited resources, efficiency and trust are non-negotiable. Chair, the EU remains committed to bridging divides and fostering cooperation. This declaration is our opportunity to transform fragmentation into solidarity. Because PPPR is fundamental to global health, and success hinges on our collective action. Thank you.

I thank the representative of the European Union, and I now give the floor to the representative of Spain. Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much, Madam Moderator. Spain fully aligns itself with the words delivered by the distinguished representative of the European Union. Multilateral frameworks and equitable access are essential to pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. Spain believes that this is a crucial time for global health governance. Health threats continue to evolve, and no region can address them alone. This is why we need to have a more effective global health architecture with the WHO at its heart, a system that is more inclusive and able to translate political commitments into specific results. We fully support the WHO-led process on the reform of the health architecture adopted by the World Health Assembly. We trust that this will become a space where member states and other involved stakeholders can define common priorities and bolster international coordination. Pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response should be thought of as an essential part of a renewed global health architecture. Better preparedness for future pandemics begins with robust health systems. We must invest in resilient health systems based on universal health coverage and primary care. At the same time, international cooperation should build national and regional capacities while respecting state sovereignty. Furthermore, equity should remain at the heart of our work. Without equitable access to the necessary tools, we won't be able to protect the most vulnerable populations or respond effectively to future emergencies. Recent events have shown this. Both the Ebola-related emergency in Africa and the management of the Hantavirus-associated crisis have both revealed the importance of vigilance and the timely exchange of information as well as inter-country coordination. For this reason, multilateralism must now show how effective it can be by concluding the normative work begun over the last few years, the amendments to the International Health Regulations that have already entered into reinforced, and the pandemic agreement has been adopted. We must now add to this through an agreement on its annex, which would guarantee a fair system to ensure access to pathogens and distribution of benefits. Spain will continue to work constructively to achieve this before May next year. There are flexible proposals on the table that we must continue to discuss and fine-tune. This is an achievable goal if there is the necessary political all well. Thank you.

I thank the representative of Spain for those remarks, and I now give the floor to CEPI, to be followed by IPPS. CEPI, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair, Your Excellencies. Equitable access is an integral component of effective pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, as demonstrated by the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak We need diverse partners to be convened early, equitable access considerations to be embedded throughout vaccine development, and resources to be pooled to achieve scale that no single country or region can do alone. CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, embeds equitable access through deep partnerships and networks that enable the right products to be developed and made available at the right time and price sustainably. We commit to a strong declaration for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. Thank you.

I thank the representative of CEPI for those inputs, and I now give the floor to IPPS, which will be followed by Rani Ariyani. IPPS, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Your Excellencies, the 100 Days Mission aims to ensure that within 100 days of identifying a pandemic threat, safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines are ready for production at scale. It builds on the pandemic agreement by operationalizing its ambitions, turning strengthened R&D capacities into a coordinated global system for developing and delivering countermeasures equitably. Affirming the 100 Days Mission as the unifying goal for PPPR is therefore essential. It provides a shared framework for countries, international organizations, industry, and academia to align R&D investment, manufacturing capacity, regulatory cooperation, and deployment. This is a part of the Friends of the HLM recommendations. The current Ebola outbreak shows why this matters. There are no rapid point-of-care tests, limited investigational therapeutics and vaccines, and urgent decisions are needed on allocation, trials, and financing. This is not a failure of science, but of sustained political prioritization. We need to address these gaps through predictable financing to keep R&D pipelines alive so that tools exist before an outbreak and can move fast when a threat emerges. Investment in regional R&D manufacturing and technology sharing so that every region can contribute to and benefit from the development and production of tools. Coordinated clinical trials to generate evidence quickly, fairly, and across diverse settings. Shared regulatory manufacturing pathways to enable rapid, rapid scale-up when supplies are critically limited, and pooled procurement and transparent allocation so scarce doses go where public health need is greatest. Therefore, the political declaration should commit to the 100 Days Mission as the shared global framework for PPPR, creating a practical, accountable pathway to deliver diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines that will strengthen multilateral cooperation and ensure equitable access. Thank you.

Thank you very much, IPPS, and I now give the floor to RANI.

Thank you very much. RANI stands for the Resilience Action Network International, and we're here as part of the Friends of the High-Level Meeting, which is an organization of groups coming together for this High-Level Meeting to bring the political and public attention to the issue that is so critical in order for it to be successful, because it is a political declaration. There are very complicated technical aspects to what we're all talking about here today, but ultimately it's about political will, as so many have said. And while the PABS—Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing—negotiations show how hard it actually is to get the technical details right, the incremental changes that we've seen today haven't been sufficient. So, we need commitment to transform this system, not just tinker at the margins, and make sure the pandemic agreement is able to be implemented and the high-level meeting re-establishes the leadership and commitment to this agenda with time-bound action. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ronnie. And I now give the floor to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.

Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to share the perspective of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, or DNDI, an international not-for-profit research and development group. I'll focus my comments on 3 critical points. First, as we are seeing in the DRC and Uganda with the Bundibugyo Ebola emergency and other recent outbreaks, when no treatments, vaccines, or rapid tests are available. Starting the research and development process once an outbreak has already been detected leaves communities, caregivers, and clinicians empty-handed. We can only get to the sprint of the race to develop new health tools by running the marathon before emergencies hit. Biomedical R&D must therefore be recognized as a core preparedness function, and this must be reflected in the political declaration. Second, the situation is particularly dire for therapeutics, which is why DNDI, along with many other partners in this room, urges member states to commit to supporting and financing a therapeutics development coalition in the political declaration. This coalition will aim to accelerate the discovery of new antivirals for pathogens with pandemic potential so that we have at least two phase-two-ready antivirals for every priority viral family before the next outbreak hits. But of course, innovation, R&D alone is not enough. No one in this room needs reminding that during COVID-19, access to the vaccines, treatments, and tests that were developed was profoundly inequitable and millions of lives were lost needlessly. The question, therefore, is how to ensure public investments in research and development will translate into timely development of accessible health tools that can save lives. Public funding has played and will continue to play a key role. While acknowledging that the pandemic agreement is not yet fully finalized and ratified, countries have a critical window of opportunity now to put in place the necessary guardrails to ensure that public R&D funding delivers public value. This is precisely the intent of Article 9.5 of the pandemic agreement, to link public investments in R&D with conditions that will ensure the development, affordability, availability, transparency, and equitable benefit of medical countermeasures. So finally, countries can and should begin implementing Article 9.5 now as a tangible outcome of years of negotiations and commit to this in the political declaration. It represents a hard-won achievement, as well, by the way, as a specific obligation of member states. Implementing it now will ensure that investments in R&D can deliver more equitable outcomes for all. Thank you.

Thank you very much for those inputs, and I now give the floor to the Stop TB Partnership, which will be followed by UHC 2030. So, Stop TB Partnership, you have the floor.

Honorable President of the General Assembly, Excellencies, colleagues, partners, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Stop TB Partnership and the millions of people, communities, civil society organizations, and innovators leading the fight to end TB. Our message today is a simple one. Ending TB is pandemic preparedness. TB is not a disease of the past. It is the world's deadliest infectious disease killer. It is airborne, it is global, and it disproportionately affects the poorest and most vulnerable. Every day, TB reminds us that respiratory pandemics are not hypothetical future threats. They are already with us and many people's lived realities. For many, TB evokes an era of Charlotte Brontë, of Keats, of Nelson Mandela in imprisonment. Yet for millions, especially in high-burden countries, TB remains that reality. COVID-19 reinforced what TB-affected communities have long known. TB systems are pandemic systems. The laboratories, the surveillance systems, contact investigation networks, community organizations, infection prevention measures, and diagnostics that drive the TB response are also essential pillars in pandemic preparedness. Investing in the fight against TB today strengthens our readiness for Disease X tomorrow. Yet despite its enormous burden and proven relevance to global health security, TB remains chronically underfunded and underprioritized. This gap weakens not only the national TB responses, but it weakens world's preparedness for future pandemics. We therefore call for a political declaration that sets out clear targets and recognizes TB as a core component of global health security, advances integrated respiratory health systems, ensures equitable access to new TB vaccines, diagnostics, treatment and care, and preventative tools, fully finances research, development, and care, and places communities at the center through community-led monitoring, through stigma reduction, and other initiatives, including those that have been pioneered through Challenge Facility for Civil Society. The Stop TB Partnership key asks, developed through our extensive consultation of partners, it complements those asks of the Friends of the HLM and calls to prioritize TB within the pandemic preparedness and response framework, to invest in the resources needed to end TB and accelerate access to innovation and ensure people-centered and accountable leadership. There can be no pandemic preparedness without TB preparedness, and investing to end TB today is the pandemic preparedness of tomorrow.

Thank you. Thank you very much for that input, and I now give the floor to UHC 2030. Thank you.

The civil society engagement mechanism for UHC 2030 brings together over 1,700 members from more than 130 countries around the world to accelerate progress, sustainable progress on universal health coverage.

UHC and global health security are intertwined goals to protect everyone everywhere, and they are achieved through the same health system. The 2023 Political Declaration PPPR recognized the fundamental role of primary healthcare and UHC in preventing, preparing for, and responding to pandemics. And the 2025 Pandemic Agreement further reinforced this connection by positioning UHC as foundational pillar of PPPR.

And now is the time to put the—

these commitments into action. We call on member states to first shift from vertical approaches towards an integrated approach for investments in PPPR and UHC grounded in primary health care. Second, to address prime— to address barriers to health equity for effective response for health emergencies, including addressing financial hardship and barriers due to discrimination. Third, to recognize social participation and meaningful engagement of communities as a core element of PPPR governance to ensure people-centered health services and build equitable and resilient health systems that respond to the needs of the people and communities.

And fourth, to take concrete steps toward addressing gender inequality in the health and care workforce.

And in short, the political declaration must ensure that investments in PHC, financial protection, and social participation are recognized as essential foundation of strong, resilient, and pandemic-ready health systems.

Thank you. Thank the representative of UHC 2030 for those remarks. And I now give the floor to the representative of the private sector— oh, sorry, before that, I give the floor to the representative of Nigeria.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Nigeria wishes to express its sincere appreciation to the President for convening this important discussion and to the distinguished panelists Thank you for your insightful presentations and substantive contributions, which have greatly enriched deliberations on this critical subject preparatory to the high-level meeting. COVID-19 pandemic exposed profound inequalities in the global health architecture and showed that access to life-saving vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and essential medical supplies were far from equitable. For many developing countries, including those in Africa, and in particular in Nigeria, delayed access translated into preventable loss of lives, prolonged economic disruption, and setbacks to sustainable development. These experiences underscored a fundamental lesson that no country can confront global health threats alone. Effective pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response requires strengthened multilateralism grounded in solidarity, equity, transparency, burden, and responsible— responsibility sharing. Nigeria believes that a resilient global health system must ensure equitable and timely access to health technologies for all countries, particularly developing nations. We must strengthen international cooperation in a manner that supports local and regional manufacturing capacities, facilitates technology transfer, promotes sustainable financing, and builds stronger public health institutions capable of responding rapidly to emerging threats. We also recognize the critical importance of strengthening surveillance systems early warning mechanisms, research collaboration and information sharing networks, investments in health system workforce development, and community-based responses are not only national priorities, but global public goods that contribute to collective safety and security. Nigeria is particularly concerned by the recurring outbreaks of Ebola virus disease in Africa. Which continue to pose significant risk to national, regional, and global health security. These outbreaks underscore the urgent need for sustained international solidarity and timely support for affected countries and communities. Pandemics are global challenges that require collective action and solidarity and not isolation. It is imperative that the gains of scientific innovation are harnessed for the common good and made available to all countries on the basis of equity, solidarity, and shared responsibility. The international community must ensure the rapid mobilization of financial, technical, and logistical assistance to contain outbreaks at their sources, prevent cross-border transmission, and support resilient health systems capable of responding effectively to future public health emergencies. A threat to health security anywhere remains a threat to health security everywhere. As we move forward, we must seize this opportunity to build a more just and resilient global health architecture, and Nigeria remains committed to working with all partners to advance multilateral solutions that promote health security sustainable development, and shared prosperity for all. I thank you.

I thank the representative of Nigeria for those remarks, and I now give the floor to the Private Sector Roundtable on Global Health Security.

Thank you, Chair. I'm honored to speak on behalf of the Private Sector Roundtable on Global Health Security, otherwise known as the PSRT. A coalition of companies committed to strengthening pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response. The PSRT was established over a decade ago during the West Africa Ebola epidemic to strengthen collaboration among governments, businesses, and civil society on global health security. The lessons of Ebola remind us that health security is a shared responsibility and that effective preparedness requires sustained collaboration across sectors, borders, and communities. Significant progress has been made in developing effective vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics, yet the current Ebola outbreak is driven by a rare strain for which no proven vaccine or targeted treatment exists. This reality underscores a fundamental lesson that no country can prevent, prepare for, or respond to these threats alone. The success of outbreak response depends on strong international cooperation and coordinated deployment of resources. The private sector has an important role to play here. Manufacturing, logistics, data systems, and supply chain expertise all contribute to strengthening global readiness and response. However, these capabilities can only reach their full potential when they're integrated into a coordinated multilateral framework. Equitable access must extend beyond medical countermeasures to include surveillance, lab capacity, trained health workers, and outbreak response infrastructure. Global health security is only as strong as its weakest link. When countries have the resources and capacity to respond rapidly, the entire world is safer. By fostering meaningful public-private partnerships, we can build a more resilient system that protects all populations from future health threats. The PSRT remains committed to working with partners across sectors and geographies to advance a more effective global preparedness architecture. Thank you.

I thank the representative of PSRT for those remarks, and I now give the floor to the representative of the New Future Foundation, to be followed by the World of Life Christian Fellowship. So, New Future Foundation, you have the floor. Ah, okay, thank you. It seems my microphone is on.

This is Afro Global Alliance.

Is that the New Future Foundation? It's your turn here.

Thank you. On behalf of the New Future Foundation, which represents the greater than 55 million people worldwide negatively impacted by the transatlantic slave trade, we now request all concerned citizens and member states to adopt the promotion of reparations and reparatory justice as the primary vehicle to resolve long-standing issues related to pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response. As shared here today by the panel participants, poverty, racism, xenophobia, classism, exploitative policies, and cultural barriers all exaggerate the adverse health impacts of pandemics and frustrate all attempts to prevent, properly prepare for, or effectively respond to health pandemics. Nations and communities adversely impacted by the transatlantic slave trade require reparatory justice in the form of sovereign debt resolution and reimbursement through the form of reparations for all resources unlawfully and unethically extracted from these communities in order to invest in the necessary physical infrastructure improvements, public health institutions, to develop the capacity of the people themselves, and ultimately limit reliance on external parties. Reparations is the primary vehicle for pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response, and resolves all apparent conflicts related to equity and the ability for communities to have a voice in their clinical care. We ask you all today, on behalf of the New Future Foundation, to support all efforts to provide reparations to those adversely impacted by the transatlantic slave trade. With that, thank you.

I thank the representative of the New Future Foundation for those remarks, and I now give the floor to the World of Life Christian Fellowship. No, wrong mic. Just to repeat, the floor is given to the World of Life Christian Fellowship.

Madam President, distinguished delegates, colleagues, and partners, we gather at this critical juncture where architecture of our multilateral system is being tested. True global security is not merely the absence of conflict or disease. It is the presence of equitable access to the tools of survival. To achieve genuine stability— sustainability, we must shift from mobile— from a mobile reactive charity to one of perspective of systemic solidarity. The need for evolution of international law is for sustainability has historically served as a floor, not a ceiling. While instruments like the International Health Regulations have provided a baseline, the application has been fragmented by national silos. Moving forward, we must view international law not as an abstraction, but as a dynamic mechanism that mandates change. The need for strengthening frameworks and institutional mechanisms to achieve a measurable global impact. We must move beyond rhetoric, comments, and addressing the institutional mechanisms for our partnerships. Colleagues, sustainability is the natural byproduct of equity. If we secure the health and sustain— and sustainability of the most vulnerable among us, we secure the collective architecture of the world. Let us use this PPR process to move forward a system of fragile coordination to one of resilient, equitable, and legally grounded collaboration. The mechanisms of the past were built for a different era. Our task today is to ensure and engineer a system that is inclusive by design and sustainability by commitment. Thank you.

Thank you very much. For those input, and I now give the floor to the International Association of Applied Psychology.

I wear many hats here over the 25 years I've been in here at the UN, but I'm speaking now as a representative of the International Association of Applied Psychology, and that word applied is very relevant here for this discussion. Because I'm going to share about two interventions on the ground in the field addressing the issue of pandemics. One is the work that we did in the DRC in a remote village of Nyabibwe, which is south of Goma, with two teams. The medical team taught the community people of all ages about handwashing and mask wearing These are people in a remote community. This is a lesson that we have to learn about how to reach those people. The second team was a psychosocial team, and it is essential to address psychosocial issues and support at the same time immediately. Our friends from— my friends from WHO know this. This is in the political declaration of the UHC about how important mental health is. It's in so many— in the Agenda as well, in the Global Compact on Migration, and the Digital Compact and the Pact for the Future. So the psychosocial team had to use certain techniques like creating a poster with pictures about how to deal with your stress, about breathing techniques, about singing, about ways to connect with children. All of these techniques are very important and lessons learned. The second is when I went to Sierra Leone, to communities during Ebola, not after, not way after, but when everybody was running away, we have to support professionals who are going there. And what do those professionals do? We have to train in a cascading way the community workers so they continue the work because we have capacity problems and we have to have people to do simple things to help the communities heal, which is what we did. Lots of activities and training volunteers from the community, even people who were working in the restaurants or, uh, the, who were teaching kids sports so that we can engage the community in that way. Now, there are lots of lessons that actually I've documented in this huge book about the psychosocial aspects of a deadly disorder and what Ebola has taught us by all the people, many people who were there at the time and did these interventions, including a chapter by Nigeria we heard from earlier. What did they do? They used social media to immediately get the message out because even as an academician and as a media person and a journalist, it is essential that we deal with public education. Social media is important, posters, um, all, all using sports stars, all these techniques that were very effective that we've documented here. The use of technology, which is exactly what we're talking about, uh, a lot at the UN here, creating hotlines. Uh, this public education is important to diminish the stigma that people feel. So To wrap up, there's so many ways of community engagement that is important for these kinds of communities. We have to use the local chiefs, the traditional leaders, the survivors who are important, protect the health workers, and also the diaspora. So one last point, and that is that we, we coined the word "Ebola-nomics" so that we can really press the point about the importance of funding.

Thank you very much. Thank you to the representative of the International Association of Applied Psychology, and I now give the floor to the Dopasi Foundation.

Thank you, Chair.

I thank the President of the General Assembly and the co-facilitators for convening this important meeting. I speak today as a Global Soul Society South representative of the of the Pandemic Fund Governing Board and the STOP TB Partnership. I align myself with the key asks of the Friends of the PPPR high-level meeting. The world does not lack commitments, it lacks delivery. For communities, equitable access is not abstract principles. It is whether a laboratory can confirm a threat in time. It is whether community health workers were trained before the panic struck. It is whether the countries have finances before the crisis struck. That is why Pandemic Fund matters. This is one of the clearest mechanisms and examples of multilateralism moving from rhetoric to country-led implementation. The support countries to build preparedness capacities before the crisis, strengthen surveillance, laboratories, health workers, and community engagement. The recent Ebola emergency proved the value of the Fund and the speed the Pandemic Fund brought moved quickly to initiate emergency financing, enabling up to USD 220 million in rapid support to fill the critical gaps. Domestic financing, country ownership, and sustainability cannot remain buzzwords anymore. The Pandemic Fund is already making them real through catalytic funding, not replacing the domestic investment, but unlocking it, aligning it with partners around national priorities, and supporting countries to invest in their own preparedness. But demand has far exceeded the available resources. Countries are ready, communities are mobilized. The missing piece is sustained, predictable financing. We must also recognize that pandemic preparedness cannot be separated from the existing infectious disease systems. TB is the world's deadliest infectious disease. The TB platforms, be it laboratories, molecular diagnostics, surveillance system, community networks, and supply chains, they were repurposed during the COVID pandemic and will be essential for any future respiratory threat. So our message is simple: equitable access must mean access to capabilities, not just commodities. The 2026 political declaration must support a fully resourced pandemic fund, the implementation of pandemic agreement, the amended IHR, operationalize One Health, and recognize TB and respiratory disease systems as core pandemic preparedness infrastructure. Preparedness cannot remain a promise made after every crisis. It needs to be funded, measured, and protected global public good. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that input, and I now give the floor to the representative of SAFE Campaign.

Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, assalamu alaikum, peace be unto you. I, I'm going to try to go as fast as I can so it's under 2 minutes. Thank you for your time. As president and founder of the SAFE Campaign NGO and a World Peace Ambassador, I stand before you with a simple conviction: Humanity deserves leadership that listens before it leads. Sorry about that. At the SAFE Campaign, we are committed to inclusive meritocracy. We believe the best solutions emerge when opportunities are based upon competence, integrity, lived experience, and service. No privileges or favoritism or exclusion. Every nation, every community, and every individual possesses talent that can contribute to solving our shared global challenges. Our humanitarian philosophy is equally simple. We do not assume we understand the struggles of people from the comfort of conference rooms. We go into the trenches. We walk alongside those who are hungry, displaced, marginalized, forgotten, and unheard. True humanitarian leadership requires proximity to suffering and a willingness to learn directly from those we seek to serve. Today, many people around the world have lost confidence in international institutions. Whether justified or not, that loss of trust is real. Trust cannot be demanded. It must be earned through transparency, accountability, ethical leadership, and measurable action. I remain hopeful. I believe the United Nations remains one of humanity's greatest ideas, a forum— sorry— a forum where nations can work together in in pursuit of peace, dignity, justice, and human development. While every institution faces challenges, we must not abandon these ideals. Instead, we must strengthen them. The SAFE campaign stands ready to help restore confidence in multilateral cooperation by championing the principles that inspire the United Nations from the beginning: service over self-interest. People over politics, and humanity over division. The future will not be built by a select few. It will be built by all of us working together with courage, compassion, and a shared commitment to human dignity. This is why I'm confirmed that I'd make an excellent world secretary general. I've been told that by UN. Because I believe I speak direct about what we need for real. You know, the bottom line is there is division in the United Nations. You got to take care of home first. You get the house built right, then you can help everybody else outside. There is an amount of people who see themselves better than those who are suffering. We got to come up off of that thinking. So when I created SAFE Campaign, I went in the trenches because I wanted to hear what the people needed, not what my assumption was that they needed, my opinion. So when it came to the COVID pandemic, I was in a hospital bed with tubes running through my body. The UN called me and asked me for a statement, and I explained to them that I had it verified already by our military policing that COVID really did happen in China and there is a bad infection there. I gave them my honest opinion, and that's how we got to the masks. That's how we got a lot of people to live, even though some didn't make it, unfortunately. I thank you all for your time and for receiving me today. I've never been invited, and I appreciate it. May you be blessed for it.

I thank the representative, Steve. Campagne for that statement. And I now give the floor to the representative of the U.S. Council for International Business. And that will be our last speaker.

Thank you. The United States Council for International Business USCIB is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion and reaffirm our commitment to advance efforts in pandemic pre— prevention, preparedness, and response. USCIB is a nonpartisan, nonprofit U.S. business group representing over 300 member companies across all sectors and serves as the voice of American business throughout international organizations, including in the UN, ILO, and OECD. Given the scale and complexity of pandemics, sustained collaboration between the public and private sector is essential to deliver comprehensive and durable solutions. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the private sector responded with urgency to develop and deliver diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics, and implemented access solutions to ensure patients could obtain essential products when and where needed. In parallel, industry scaled manufacturing at risk, maintained resilient supply chains, and expanded access to self-care products and trusted health information when formal care was disrupted. Collectively, these efforts sustained continuity of care and strengthened the pandemic response. As we prepare for the high-level meeting, we ask member states to remember that the business community plays an indispensable role in in the success of PPPR. And we encourage the following priorities: preserve an enabling environment for innovation and access by promoting legal certainty, regulatory coherence, R&D incentives, IP protections, and systems that support investment and equitable access. Strengthen public-private collaboration as a core pillar of PPPR by reinforcing complementary roles with governments, industry, academia, and international organizations to foster innovation, scale manufacturing, strengthen supply chains, and support effective response networks. And finally, integrate NCD management into pandemic planning to better protect vulnerable populations and promote national preparedness plans that maintain continuity of care and invest in self-care and health literacy to strengthen health systems overall. USCIB stands ready to deepen collaboration with partners across sectors to mobilize resources, enhance future response capacity, and deliver meaningful progress to strengthen global prevention, preparedness, and response.

Thank you. I thank the representative of the U.S. Council for International Business for those inputs. Unfortunately, we are not able to take more inputs. However, we do have the names of those of you who couldn't speak but had raised your hand for interventions. So what we will do in the afternoon in the second panel, you will be prioritized should you wish to speak in the afternoon. So do press again and because we have your details, you'll be prioritized to make interventions, and I would imagine, Verna, that those interventions can also relate to this panel as well, so you'll have an opportunity to do that. So I will stop the— taking your input so that we can give our panelists an opportunity to respond, but Thank you for those rich inputs. I thought it was great that, you know, we heard from member states, we heard from different sectors, and I was particularly struck by one or two or three things that were said. I think the representative of GAVI who said all of this, how we respond must be driven by the needs of the public health needs as opposed to the purchasing power, and I think it's so important. And also, Rani reminded us that, as we could hear from in the room, that this is— yes, technically it's complex, but politically even more complex. When you had the positioning of different groupings of member states, you realize that it's going to be we'll have to hear each other out. And I'm particularly partial to the TB group because this is one of those oldest disease that still hasn't received the attention that I believe it deserves. And I was very pleased to hear the representative of the private sector, PSRT, vouching for multilateralism, really? Yes, so that's great. And multilateral framework, as you said, and the public-private partnerships. And yeah, somebody said, "Listen before you lead." I think it was the representative of the SAFE campaign. So those were rich inputs. I didn't hear questions, but maybe there were, but you had— we had what member states are doing, good examples. We had reinforcing messages from what we've had in the morning, and then we had specific inputs relating to where you are coming from. So there you are. I really found useful inputs from the panels and from all of you. So I'm going to ask panel members to respond, to say their last word on this, and I'll start with you, Alessandro. Over to you. Thank you.

I learned a lot. I'm gonna just say, focus on a couple, three points. One is what a fresh reminder this discussion was of the importance of the interaction between Parliament and civil society. Civil society, the private sector, the scientific community. The multi-stakeholder approach is in fact the key to this issue and it is what we recommend to our own member parliaments everywhere to hold hearings with civil society and other groups precisely because you are voice from the ground up. And did I also say that while pandemics are global, they always start local? And you are also the first warning system sometimes of what goes on in communities, let alone you also have the expertise, the hands-on expertise, to share within the public domain. Another caution, I'm also reminded by this— in this— from this discussion that the healthcare sector is also a terrain of— of where particular interests can be at odds with the public interest. So we need to be vigilant that the solutions that proposed are truly in the public interest. Second, a reminder— something that we haven't really touched upon very much is the importance of the quasi-governmental agencies and regulatory bodies that intervene in this issue, as well as lots of other issues in public policy, and how these agencies need to preserve their autonomy and they need to be well-funded in order to also provide the oversight that we need to make sure that commitments are maintained. And lastly, many of you underscored the importance of UHC, the universal health coverage, which is also where we come from at the IPU. We have a committee Parliamentary Committee on Health that's very much focused on universal health coverage as the bedrock foundation for all of this, for pandemic prevention and lots of other— TB, all kinds of issues. To put it most simply, exclusion is a risk factor, maybe the most important risk factor. Risk factor when it comes to pandemics. We need to strengthen universal health coverage everywhere so that we have that fundamental safety net that protects everybody. Thank you.

Thank you, Alejandro.

Exclusion is a risk factor. Tirana, what did you make of what you've heard?

What are your last thoughts? Thank you so much. I was very encouraged to hear such important themes come out that are very consistent with, I think, what Médecins Sans Frontières sees on the ground. You know, there I heard many people reflecting on the importance of accessibility, how critical equity is. You know, I think I spoke earlier and I heard others talking about the need for trust and transparency and partnership, and ultimately I had this underlying message of, you know, who gets a seat at the table and how important it is for multiple stakeholders to be there, and most importantly, the communities that are affected, not only that they have a seat at the table, but they are heard and they are able to shape the responses and the decisions that are taken. And I think that the last thing I would add is there is a lot of— and I appreciate the interventions from member states, and as I see a level of agreement and commitment that continues to emerge, I'm reminded of one important thing, and that is that whether it be a framework or a declaration or agreement that we come up with or that we have come up with in the past that will begin to correct the errors of the past. The most beautifully worded frameworks that contains all of the— all of our aspirations is one thing, but it will succeed and it will fail based on political will. and I encourage everybody in this room to ensure that whatever steps come next, that whatever frameworks that we develop, that they are enforceable and ultimately that they serve the communities that we are all— that we are all committed to serving.

Thank you very much for those observations, Tirana. Now, Lijia, your thoughts?

Thank you very much, and thank you for those comments, which are really very, very interesting. What I picked up from this is, relating to the topic of today's discussion, multilateralism for access, is that it really needs to be inclusive, effective, and networked. And what does that mean in terms of what we've been talking about? And I would deconstruct this into 4 elements. One would be looking at the science and the research, and we've heard a lot of that today, why the science and the research needs to be more transdisciplinary, needs to be more multi-stakeholder orientated, but also with a focus on neglected and forgotten diseases because those have a habit of coming back to haunt us, but also to the fact that there's a lot of vulnerability there which is not being attended to. We also heard it with the importance of behavioral sciences and the need to bring this into this kind of thinking, and the importance of public funding for research. I think Tirana made a very important point right in the beginning on the importance of recognizing that public funding needs to be for— also for public use. When it comes to the governance issues, one of the aspects that doesn't get sufficiently attended to is the importance of collaborative governance. We see a lot of initiatives, we've heard of a lot of work that is going on, but how do we bring these two together and how do we come up with participatory processes where everyone can speak to each other across these initiatives, and whether these initiatives are the global or whether they are the national or the local level, the more we connect the dots, the more we bring these kind of a participation thinking into this, the better we would be for both the preparedness as well as the responses. And that goes for coordination, and it's really good that we have the Quadripartite for the UN agencies for the One Health approach, but you can do better coordination even elsewhere in connectioning all the different initiatives that we heard. How do we make sure that we scale these up and we take this to the next level? Because otherwise each of these are doing little bits, but you do not get that sufficient attention and the sharing of experiences except the once in a— in a moment when you come here for some kind of sharing experiences. Needs to be scaled up much more. And finally, we heard of— on implementation and the importance of moving from commitments to actions, and the Lyon One Health Summit really had some very clear 5 action deliverables which were in order to increase these kind of implementations at the country level, and I think we need to move there now to be able to take these forward. I'll stop there, Chair.

Thank you. Thank you for those insights, Lijia. And I now move to— The last but not least, Ambassador Antle, your thoughts from what you've heard this morning?

Thank you, thank you, Ambassador. And I would like to start by thanking the panellists, the member states, and the stakeholders for the useful inputs and the political commitment, because we need it. Thank you very much. In addition to what you mentioned, Ambassador, we have heard keywords: equity, community engagement, investment, not cost, funding, universal health coverage, R&D, One Health approach, public health needs, complementarity between local, regional, and international interventions. And political commitment. And as we prepare for the second high-level meeting on PPR, we must preserve this political commitment. It's very important and that's key. And the political declaration should be ambitious, definitely, but it should also be practical and results-oriented. Above all, it should reaffirm our collective determination to translate the progress achieved over recent years into stronger capacities, stronger health systems, and greater equity for all. And I would like to thank the two co-facilitators for the political declaration, Rwanda and Armenia. Thank you for your for your work. And listening to you all, I was thinking that maybe the real test of multilateralism is not whether we can negotiate a new agreement, but whether we can finalize the negotiation of the Paris Annex and implement the agreements we already have. And that is a challenge before us, I think, and it is our responsibility we have for the future generation, and we have to respond.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for that, and I hope the member states that are in the room and can, can convey this message to their colleagues in Geneva that Maybe the test, as you say, Ambassador, is to complete the PAPS Annex, bring that to a close, and then move on to implementation because that's going to be very important. That has come through in a number of interventions. So this concludes the discussion of Panel 1, and I really would like to thank our fantastic speakers for their invaluable insights, and thank you also for what you have shared, the perspectives that you have brought to the table, additional insights. That has been great. It is clear from this discussion that equity must be at the heart of any effective response to pandemics, but equity does not happen by default. We must continue to work towards this principle: building core capacities, investing in systems and the people behind them, and strengthening collaboration and coordination across the PPPR continuum. These are critical priorities that we will carry forward into our discussion this afternoon. Afternoon in Panel 2. So I would like to close the session and we will reconvene again at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Thank you very much.