The Three Priority Areas
These three areas were kept in mind by India for the declaration:
- Social disruption caused by Covid-19.
- Economic disruption caused by Covid-19.
- What could be done to prevent such losses in the future.
New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration on Health
- To continue progress towards polio eradication and ending ongoing epidemics including AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Hepatitis and Water-borne and other communicable diseases.
- To focus on strengthening primary health care and health workforce.
- To focus on improving essential health services and health systems to better than pre-pandemic levels, ideally within the next 2-3 years.
- To promote the One Health-based approach driven by the Quadripartite’s One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022-2026).
- To enhance the resilience of health systems and support development of climate resilient and low-carbon health systems in collaboration with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).
- To support the work of the WHO-led Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH).
- To prioritise tackling Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), including through research and development, infection prevention and control efforts within respective national action plans.
- To facilitate equitable access to safe, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures, especially in Low-and Middle-income Countries (LMICs), Low Development Countries and Small Island Developing States.
- To recognize the potential role of evidence-based Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) in health.
- To take note of international efforts in TCM, including WHO’s global and collaborating centres, and clinical trial registries.
- To Support the WHO-led inclusive consultative process for the development of an interim medical countermeasures coordination mechanism, which may be adapted in alignment with the WHO CA+, to:
- Have effective participation of LMICs and other developing countries.
- Consider a network of networks approach.
- Leverage local and regional R&D and manufacturing capacities and strengthen last mile delivery.
- Committees agreed to develop an interim platform to promote an end-to-end network for research and manufacturing them till a legally binding pandemic treaty.
- To Promote and improve access to mental health services and psychosocial support in an inclusive manner.
- To Call for strong international counter-narcotics cooperation, free of unnecessary restrictions, including information sharing and capacity building to disrupt production and proliferation of illicit drugs, including synthetic drugs, and precursor chemicals at their origin, in transit and at destination points.
- To remain committed to strengthening the global health architecture for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) through enhanced collaboration between Finance and Health Ministries under the Joint Finance and Health Task Force (JFHTF).
- Under the JFHTF, the participation of invited key regional organisations in the Task Force meetings is welcomed as they enhance the voice of low-income countries.
- The discussion on the Framework on Economic Vulnerabilities and Risks (FEVR) and the initial Report for Economic Vulnerabilities and Risks arising from pandemics, created through collaboration between World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank, IMF, and European Investment Bank (EIB).
- The Task Force to continue refining this Framework over its multi-year work plan to regularly assess economic vulnerabilities and risks due to evolving pandemic threats, considering country-specific circumstances.
- It highlights the importance of securing new donors and co-investment and ask the Task Force to report back to Finance and Health Ministers in 2024 on its progress.
- It welcomes the establishment of the Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH) within a WHO-managed framework
- To build a comprehensive digital health ecosystem in compliance with respective data protection regulations.
Issues raised with the Declaration
Opposition to Interim Platform
- Although the document specifically mentions LMICs having a voice in the platform, critics said that it is likely to replicate the failures of the ACT accelerator which gave more say to the G7 countries.
- Critics pointed that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency of international concern, those agreements no longer stand, and poorer countries have to keep paying high prices to maintain the level of vaccination.
- Critics argued that an interim measure would be used as an excuse by the G7 countries to keep delaying a legally binding pandemic treaty.
Terms
| Long Covid | Long COVID or long-haul COVID is a series of health problems persisting or developing after an initial COVID-19 infection. Symptoms can last weeks, months or years and are often debilitating. |
| One-Health Approach | One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It recognizes that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent. |
| Epidemic of pilots | In this several similar initiatives are launched in different countries but aren’t scaled up. |
Initiatives of WHO
Quadripartite’s One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH-JPA)
- The OH JPA shapes a systems approach while identifying and addressing the deeper causes that have led to past critical risks to global health.
- It outlines a set of activities to drive the change and transformation required to mitigate the impact of current and future health challenges at global, regional and country levels.
Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH)
ATACH is a WHO initiative, an informal voluntary network for Participants to exchange views, share information, and enhance technical and political co-operation.
It is not a distinct legal entity, and it derives its legal status from WHO. Thus, it shall be administered by WHO, which provides its Secretariat.
WHO CA+
The WHO CA+ aims for a world where pandemics are effectively controlled to protect present and future generations from pandemics and their devastating consequences.
- It aims to advance the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health for all peoples, based on equity, human rights and solidarity, with a view to achieving universal health coverage, while recognizing the sovereign rights of countries.
- While acknowledging the differences in levels of development among countries, respecting their national context and recognizing existing relevant international instruments.
Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator
The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is the world’s most comprehensive end-to-end solution to ending the acute phase of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
- It brings together governments, health organizations, scientists, businesses, civil society, and philanthropists to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
- The ACT Accelerator is a framework for collaboration. It is not a decision-making body or a new organization.
- It was set up in response to a call from G20 Leaders in March 2020 and launched by the WHO, European Commission, France and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2020.
