Broader, smarter, fairer: A more ambitious agenda for global health

During the past few years, and even more so with the Covid-19 pandemic, the global community has failed to promote better health for all. While the need to step up cooperation was widely acknowledged long before the pandemic, short-term solutions have generally prevailed over longer-term strategies to address global health governance’s failures. Even now when challenges appear on policymakers’ radar, solutions often ignore the underlying root causes, and thereby risk falling short of offering long-lasting remedies. This CEPS In-Depth Analysis report takes stock of the reforms proposed for future global health governance since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and offers recommendations for both ongoing and possible new initiatives. After presenting a comprehensive diagnosis of the policy problems that emerged before and during the pandemic, and identifying their underlying causes, we address current initiatives for enhanced political leadership, institutional reform, available financial support, and multistakeholder platforms for more effective delivery. During a pandemic, proposed reforms must face the twofold challenge of bringing the emergency to an end, as well as preventing new health emergencies from occurring. Thus, the final section of the report evaluates the effectiveness of proposed reforms (with a focus on the ongoing negotiations on the Pandemic Accord and the newly launched ‘Pandemic Fund’) and reflects on existing gaps. Observing that the emerging landscape for global health security governance lacks ambition and provides patchy solutions, the report supports the adoption of a more ambitious agenda, with ten areas for improvement are identified.