Major Outcomes of the 2019 World Health Assembly
By Mirza Alas and Nirmalya Syam
This policy brief provides an overview of the outcomes of selected agenda items that were discussed at the 72nd session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) of the World Health Organization (WHO), held from 21 to 26 May 2019 in Geneva. These items reflect some of the health priorities of developing countries.
Medicines and Intellectual Property: 10 Years of the WHO Global Strategy
By Dr. Germán Velásquez
The negotiations of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG) (2006-2008), undertaken by the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO), were the result of a deadlock in the 2006 World Health Assembly where the Member States were unable to reach an agreement on what to do with the 60 recommendations in the report on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property submitted to the Assembly in the same year by a group of experts designated by the Director-General of the WHO. The result of these negotiations was the Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (GSPOA) that was approved by the World Health Assembly in 2008. One of the objectives of the IGWG’s Global Strategy and Plan of Action was to substantially reform the pharmaceutical innovation system in view of its failure to produce affordable medicines for diseases that affect the greater part of the world’s population living in developing countries. The intellectual property (IP) rights imposed by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the trade agreements could become some of the main obstacles to accessing medicines. The GSPOA made a critical analysis of this reality and opened the door to the search for new solutions to this problem. Ten years after the approval of the GSPOA, the results are uncertain and poor.
Title: Regional Workshop on Antimicrobial Resistance in Asia
Date: 24-26 June, 2019
Venue: Penang, Malaysia
Organizers: Organized by the South Centre and Third World Network (TWN)
Title: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) – Agriculture and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Date: 20 June, 2019
Venue: International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG)
Organizers: Organized by the South Centre and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Permanent Missions of Ghana and Norway
Title: Financing the SDGs: Revealing the Links between Illicit Financial Flows and Domestic Resource Mobilization
Date: 15 February 2018, 6:15-7:15 PM
Venue: Conference Room 11, United Nations, New York
Organizers: The South Centre, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) and the Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) Group
Overview of outcomes of the November 2017 UNFCCC climate talks
The annual climate change talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol (KP) and the Paris Agreement (PA) took place in Bonn, Germany, on 6-18 November 2017, ending a day later than scheduled due to last-minute wrangling among Parties, mainly over issues related to finance.
Playing with Financial Fire: A South Perspective on the International Financial System
By Andrew Cornford
Playing with Fire (PWF) is a continuation of the analysis of the integration of Emerging and Developing Economies (EDEs) into the international financial system which Yılmaz Akyüz has carried out in his roles as senior economist for many years responsible for UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report and Chief Economist at the South Centre. The treatment covers cross-border financial flows, increased commercial presence of foreign financial institutions in EDEs and their increased participation in their local financial markets as well as policy and regulatory issues. PWF deploys data on major cross-border financial flows on a gross as well as a net basis. This innovative approach facilitates identification of financial stability issues posed by the increased participation of EDEs in international financial markets.
Resistance to Antibiotics: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Action Needed to Avoid the End of Modern Medicine
WHO Advice: Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance
Title: What to expect from COP23
Date: Monday, 6 November 2017, 11h30-13h00
Venue: Room 7 (Bonn Zone), Bonn, Germany
Organizers: The South Centre, The Third World Network
Promoting Sustainable Development by Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change Response Measures on Developing Countries
Response measures arise in the context of developed and developing countries taking actions to combat climate change at global, national and regional levels, such as for the protection and stabilization of the climate, emissions leakages and/or the costs of environmental compliance. They may have unintended and adverse economic and social consequences for developing countries’ economies, most often on the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of those economies.
