Advocacy Update: Top Things to Know This Week

Pandemic Fund CSO Town Hall

On February 29, the Pandemic Fund is hosting a CSO Town Hall. CSO Board Members — GHC President and CEO, Elisha Dunn-Georgiou and Aida Kurtovic, Executive Director of the South-Eastern Europe Regional HIV and TB Community Network, along with alternate Board Members Diah Saminarsih (Founder, Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development Initiatives) and Loretta Wong (Deputy Chief of Global Advocacy and Policy, AIDS Healthcare Foundation) — will provide updates on decisions taken and tasks ahead. As importantly, they will invite feedback, reflections, and priority-sharing from civil society and community colleagues. This is an important opportunity to ensure your voice is heard. Register here.

Pandemic Agreement Negotiations

The WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is meeting to continue negotiations on the pandemic agreement. Decisions from these negotiations — which  are intended to provide a template for the world’s response to future pandemics — are expected to be finalized by the World Health Assembly in May. However, countries are struggling to come to a consensus on a range of issues, including equitable access to medical countermeasures, pathogen access and benefit sharing, and intellectual property rights, among others. As these discussions move forward, you may be interested in revisiting GHC’s recommendations to the INB.

U.S. Global Health Funding

Under the current Continuing Resolution, funding for both the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) bills, which include the majority of U.S. global health funding, will expire on March 8 (other funding is set to expire earlier, on March 1). Congressional leaders have agreed to topline funding numbers for all twelve of the appropriations bills, but these numbers have not been made public, including the specific levels for U.S. global health programs. Congress is running short on time to find solutions with deadlines fast approaching. If you are interested in learning more about the appropriations process and how to engage in advocacy for U.S. global health funding, be sure to register for our upcoming U.S. Global Health Budget & Appropriations webinar later this week.