World Health Assembly

It was a 1975 speech by the WHO Director General at the time, Halfdan Mahler.

He stood up at the World Health Assembly and said there was an urgent need to ensure that most essential drugs are available.

That produced a resolution, and a small unit of three people started preparing the list.

Huh? Three people? The Drug Policies and Management Unit.

We are aware that he called up the director general of WHO at that time and asked him, find an international solution to this problem.

And that's how in 1981, World Health Assembly passed a code of marketing, International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, based on which the whole world is now struggling to construct laws, which India did in 1992.

So, that marketing history is very long.

There

So, we kept doing it.

So, then we got in contact with International Baby Food Action Network.

It's a global organization since 1979-81, when the International Code of Marketing was passed in the World Health Assembly.

Yes.

Well, we saw another example of global governance in the global health sphere.

In May of 2025, the World Health Assembly, they adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement.

After more than three years of negotiations involving member states around the world, So the agreement is designed to establish greater international cooperation in preparation for and responding to future pandemics.

And I just talked to you the other day about now they've got something going where they can declare an emergency, but no one has to be sick.

Yes, this is right.

Negotiations are underway and the vote on what I just mentioned, that is international health regulations, the amendments to it, that vote will take place next May in Geneva at the occasion of the World Health Assembly.

And then right afterwards, These amendments will come into force by way of an automatism.

There will be no vote in the national parliaments, and therefore we should be worried about and make sure that ultimately these international health regulations amendments will not come into place.

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And so this legal instrument shall be amended in a wide, widest possible way to give WHO more power.

It will be subject to a vote, these amendments, next World Health Assembly in May 2024, and only a simple majority will be sufficient for the member states to adopt these new health regulations, noting we have 194 states.

member states and then as i mentioned just by way of an automatism these new amendments will become will enter into force into every member state whereas we have a second working stream concerning the new pandemic treaty which is a totally new agreement that so far did not exist and there we will have to or the member states will have to observe a two-third majority at the occasion of the next world assembly and then most significantly, there will be a period of 18 months during which within every member state there shall take place a parliamentary debate and ultimately a ratification process.

The meeting I attended in Accra was attended by representatives of the 15 member states.

In the Regional Technical Advisory Committee, which is like the Regional Health Assembly, equivalent to like the World Health Assembly.

In the Regional Technical Advisory Committee, you have, uh, each country sending their Ministry of Health representatives.

You're talking about doctors, medical people, people who are driving policy on the ground in each country.

Okay? Africa should be able to influence global decision-making and governance much more powerfully.

You might be asking, uh, what's the relevance of this? Well, I tell you why, why this is relevant.

You know, when we go to the WHO, to the World Health Assembly, to, to, to, to where important global health decisions are made by the WHO, it's always the case that the global nodes, the powerful states, America, the UK, Europe, China, they come with their agenda, and they are able to push their agenda through.

Because they are giving you breakfast and lunch, you cannot go af- against their interests because they'll tell you, "Are you sure you want to go against this, uh, bill or this proposal? If you go against this proposal, we're not gonna give you breakfast and lunch." The African states will act against their own self-interest and vote in favor of whatever measure or agenda that the global nodes is championing.

And ultimately, the coalition is also anchored by the member states themselves, the countries themselves at a global level.

And every year, we report back at the World Health Assembly.

Every year, especially in the endemic regions, we do report back to member states, and they provide their input.

So it is coalition building.

And Jamal? What gives me, I would say hope maybe, is that...

The commitment, the level of commitment we continue to see.

In May, we had the World Health Assembly in Geneva bringing all member states.

64 member states took the floor, all of them fully supportive, all of them endorsing the idea of ending polio for good.

You know, how do we connect with each other? And the friendships we formed there have been so meaningful and powerful, but really shifted in the work that we did over the subsequent years.

But the second thing that was interesting is that the World Health Assembly a couple of years ago We had an open house for countries that were interested in learning more about social connection.

And I cannot tell you how shocked I was to see that not only was the room jam-packed with representatives of countries across the spectrum, but there was like a line out the hall.

It was packed.