• The IPPR will choose other members as well as members of an independent secretariat to provide support.
• The team is being constituted even as the US notified the UN that it is pulling out of the global body.
Image: COURTESY
The World Health Organization has initiated a panel to evaluate the world’s response to Covid-19.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement to member states that the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) will be co-chaired by former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark and former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Operating independently, the IPPR will choose other members as well as members of an independent secretariat to provide support.
“Prime Minister Clark and President Sirleaf were selected through a process of broad consultation with member states and world experts. I cannot imagine two more strong-minded, independent leaders to help guide us through this critical learning process,” Dr Tedros said.
The team is being constituted even as the US notified the UN that it is pulling out of the global body. Already, President Donald Trump froze US funding for the WHO.
During the 73rd World Health Assembly in May, member states adopted a landmark resolution that called on the WHO to initiate an independent and comprehensive evaluation of the lessons learnt from the international health response to Covid-19.
“This is a time for self-reflection, to look at the world we live in and find ways to strengthen our collaboration as we work together to save lives and bring this pandemic under control,” Dr Tedros said.
“The magnitude of this pandemic, which has touched virtually everyone in the world, clearly deserves a commensurate evaluation.”
Dr Tedros proposed that a special session of the Executive Board be called in September to discuss the panel’s progress.
In November, the IPPR will present an interim report at the resumption of the World Health Assembly.
In January 2021, the executive board will hold its regular session, where the panel’s work will be further discussed; and in May of next year at the World Health Assembly, the panel will present its substantive report.
The director-general noted that the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme will also continue its existing work.
“Even as we fight this pandemic, we must be readying ourselves for future global outbreaks and many other challenges of our time such as antimicrobial resistance, inequality and the climate crisis,” Tedros said.
“Covid-19 has taken so much from us. But it is also giving us an opportunity to break with the past and build back better.”
Edited by F'Orieny