Advocacy for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR)

Efforts to prepare for the next pandemic are changing the trajectory of global health. Governments around the world are coordinating on a range of agreements to meet the challenge of future global health threats. For Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) to succeed, it is imperative that lessons from the HIV response are integrated into the architecture being built for PPPR. This means principles of equity must be embedded at every level of these agreements, and governments and civil society must be empowered to hold each other accountable to their commitments. The HIV response is inextricably linked to the progress or failure of PPPR. If done correctly, engaged and supported civil society and an integrated, fully funded response to HIV and the globes other current pandemics become the foundation for PPPR to effectively respond to emerging threats. 

About this Project

HIV advocates bring essential expertise to advocacy for PPPR. AVAC works in partnership to track the process and content of these agreements. Through collaboration, we identify gaps, develop an advocacy agenda and put forward concrete proposals. We champion key priorities aimed at ensuring principles of equity guide the structure and operation of the global architecture for PPPR that is being built in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a reimagined vision for pandemic readiness and global health, each country contributes their fair share, based on resources available, to be distributed globally, with priority for serving those most in need and achieving global health equity. As we saw during the COVID-19 Pandemic, richer countries have long abandoned global public health concerns once they consider the situation to be under control in their own countries (as with HIV, TB, malaria, and other infectious diseases). This isolationist approach must end: until access to essential health services and biomedical interventions is equal for all, we are all vulnerable to new health threats.

There is a significant opportunity to harness new initiatives and reform existing infrastructure to better address health issues, recommitting the world to the primary health care (PHC) measures outlined in the Astana Declaration and prioritizing health systems strengthening. There is growing recognition of the interrelated nature of global health and the need to integrate health responses between disease areas and with trade, education, labor, and finance. Resources for PPPR have historically been too little and too focused on infrastructure (laboratory capacity, gene sequencing functionality, and surveillance) while donor countries typically see PHC and health systems strengthening as an in-country responsibility. Multilateral-driven policy initiatives and platforms such as the WHO Pandemic Accord, new Pandemic Fund, and UN PPPR High-Level Meeting (HLM) present a great opportunity to, for the first time, collectively fund and strengthen health systems and primary health care—if the decisions incorporate lower- and middle-income country (LMIC) and civil society priorities.