Aiming at protecting the world from future infectious diseases crises, the World Health Assembly agreed to launch a process to draft and negotiate an international instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in December 2021. The World Health Organization (WHO) asked for input from all interested parties in public hearings, and GCH proudly participated, sharing the point of view of local and regional governments (LRGs).
LRGs play a crucial role to prevent, prepare for, and recover from health emergencies. Based on our continuous engagement with mayors and local leaders, we made the following recommendations to ensure better preparedness for future health emergencies:
- Follow a multi-stakeholder approach that includes LRGs when designing pandemic responses.
- Prepare a more efficient crisis communication strategy with local leaders to avoid the dissemination of false and harmful information.
- Help better harmonize local policies to avoid confusing local populations by putting in place different measures.
- Strengthen coordination among the international, national and local levels in health-related policymaking processes.
- Establish permanent monitoring and response mechanism at the international and national levels to respond faster locally.
The second round of public hearings addressed the guiding question: “Based on your experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, what do you believe should be addressed at the international level to better protect against future pandemics?” GCH shared its experience with COVID-19 pandemic response at city level and what we believe should be addressed at the international level in this respect to better protect against future pandemics. It commended the important work already done and looks forward to incorporating the needs of local and regional governments in the text.
GCH supports the involvement of cities and city networks in the process and suggests the creation of consultative status for LRGs in this important process, that is key to properly prepare for the next health emergency.
Read the full statement by Andras Szorenyi below.
My name is Andras Szorenyi and on behalf of Geneva Cities Hub, I am pleased to share our experience with the COVID-19 pandemic response at city level. We commend the important work done so far and look forward to incorporating the needs of local and regional governments.
Based on our experience from working with LRGs, they played an important role in pandemic response. Often cities are the primary battlegrounds to fight pandemics, and citizens turn to local leaders for reliable information. Hence, GCH supports the involvement of cities and city networks in the process and suggests the creation of consultative status for LRGs.
During our interactions, LRGs from different continents expressed it very clearly: due to the proximity to their population, they have a crucial role to prevent, prepare for, and recover from health emergencies. They provided recommendations to ensure better preparedness for future health emergencies, such as:
- Follow a multi-stakeholder approach that includes LRGs when it comes to designing pandemic response.
- Prepare a more efficient crisis communication strategy with local leaders to avoid the dissemination of false and harmful information.
- Help better harmonize local policies to avoid confusion of local population by different measures in place.
- Strengthen coordination among the international, national and local levels in health-related policymaking processes.
- Establish permanent monitoring and response mechanism at the international and national levels to respond faster locally.
GCH therefore suggests enlarging the group of stakeholders, create consultative status for local and regional governments within the process, and take into account their inputs in the current text.
Thank you.
