Statement of the Delegation of the Republic of Indonesia at the Second Meeting of the Working Group on Strengthening WHO Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies Agenda Item 4 Consideration of the findings and recommendations of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, the IHR Review Committee and the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, taking into account relevant work of WHO, including that stemming from resolution WHA73.1 (2020) and decision EB148(12) (2021), as well as the work of other relevant bodies, organizations, non-State actors and any other relevant information Governance
Thank you, Chair and Moderator,
Indonesia would like to align itself with the statement made by Chile on behalf of Group of Friends of the Pandemic Treaty and by India on behalf of the SEA region.
We thank the Bureau and the Secretariat for their work.
Chair,
On governance, we note the recommendation that has been put forward.
We concur the need for stronger global governance, and we are open to discuss on how we can promote a more robust, effective, responsive and stronger WHO governance system, emphasizing the principle of intergovernmental and based on technical expertise and science.
The issue of equity is the outmost critical issue arising from the current pandemic.
The lack of access to vaccines and other COVID-19 countermeasures has exacerbated and prolonged the effective response to the pandemic.
-> Resulting in unnecessary lives to be lost as well as other socio-economic cost.
Initiative such as ACT-A and COVAX Facility has helped to expedite research, development, and production, yet access and distribution are still uneven.
On the other hand, many of the existing response are ad-hoc initiatives.
There are many reports coming that doses that could have been used to help LMIC response is in danger to be wasted due to expiration date.
Past experience, such as SARS, has shown that access and equity is a problem, and we again are facing the same situation.
It is high time for us not to continue make the same mistake again.
We cannot work based on only charity and ad-hoc initiative.
We should empower each and every country on its health agenda.
The future possible governance should enable effort to decentralize the pandemic countermeasures capacity in each region.
More international cooperation is needed to strengthen home grown capacity both at the national and regional level to strengthen technical capacities.
In this regard, we need to consider the recommendation that has not yet been addressed in the existing mechanism in the WHO.
For example, responsible, fair and transparent rapid and timely sharing of pathogens, genome sequence information for surveillance and the public health response.
Also, the development of effective countermeasures and the provision of equitable access and benefits sharing.
Finally, we are also of the view that the ongoing initiative to develop a Universal Health Periodic Review could also contribute in shaping a better health governance.
A cooperative mechanism, the UHPR, could enable WHO members and relevant stakeholders to actively participate in advancing the SDGs, including Universal Health Coverage and the vision towards a sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery.
I thank you
