The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and WHO at the moment signed a brand new Memorandum of Understanding, reaffirming the essential position that parliamentarians play in enabling good well being to foster steady and equitable societies.

The brand new five-year memorandum was signed by Mr Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary Normal, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-Normal, on the 148th IPU Meeting, which is happening in Geneva from 23 to 27 March 2024. Each organizations decide to proceed working collectively to advertise, present and defend the well being and well-being of all folks, all over the place. It renews a historic dedication made in 2018 to leverage their respective scientific and political mandates to deal with persistent and rising challenges going through populations worldwide.

The memorandum reinforces essential areas of cooperation that align with world well being priorities, particularly common well being protection, world well being safety, well being promotion and lowering well being inequities, particularly in relation to sexual and reproductive well being and rights.

It additionally provides new cross-cutting areas of labor, together with responding to local weather change, assist to the government-led negotiations on a brand new pandemic settlement, and sustainable financing for well being. This contains collaboration on this yr’s first WHO Funding Spherical to beat the historic imbalance between assessed and voluntary contributions, the distortions this creates, and the problems WHO faces with insufficiently predictable and versatile financing.

WHO Member States are staging their newest spherical of negotiations on a global settlement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response earlier than scheduled consideration of a proposal for adoption on the 77^th World Well being Meeting in Might 2024. The proposed settlement goals to offer a foundation for worldwide cooperation that was missing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Parliaments are instrumental in supporting the method in the direction of adoption, in addition to in guiding the follow-up concerns at a nationwide stage.

Parliamentarians play a necessary position in setting insurance policies, prioritizing investments and making certain accountability to advance public well being. Political management in service of the general public saves lives and protects well being by making certain communities and nations are higher ready and designed to be more healthy and safer. WHO seems to be ahead to working even nearer with the IPU and parliamentarians worldwide to advance efforts to guard and promote folks’s well-being, from negotiating a pandemic settlement to forestall a repeat of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, to investing in common well being protection.”

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-Normal

Mr Martin Chungong, IPU Secretary Normal, stated: “The COVID-19 pandemic was not an remoted incidence. One other pandemic will occur. It isn’t a query of if, however when. Parliaments have a key position, which is why we are going to proceed working with WHO in any respect ranges to boost consciousness amongst parliamentarians on the pandemic settlement and different world well being processes; to present parliamentarians entry to technical experience and data; and to assist them to pursue their nationwide well being priorities and again them with the mandatory laws and sources.”

Milestones of the IPU and WHO’s earlier collaboration embody a landmark IPU decision in 2019 on reaching common well being protection, a lot of sensible sources for parliamentarians equivalent to a latest handbook on common well being protection, and quite a few occasions which have introduced collectively well being consultants and parliamentarians.