PPPR Advocacy 101: Find out what it means for you.

Season 5, Episode 2,   Mar 29, 2023, 01:49 PM

Over the coming months, global leaders will make key decisions about several initiatives to prepare for the next pandemic. What they commit to and how much they will spend, and how well these plans incorporate equity as a principle across all of these initiatives, is in question.

Deadlines for civil society to influence these decisions are coming up. There's a Pandemic Fund, a Pandemic Accord, several UN High-Level Meetings, and a Medical Countermeasures, or MCM, platform, which would coordinate country commitments around drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other equipment for health emergencies. 

In our last podcast, we spoke with Chris Collins, President of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria about all these efforts. He talked about how ultimately these decisions  will build a new architecture for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response, or PPPR. 

Chris highlighted what the world learned from COVID 19 and from HIV. We were reminded that so many of the successes from 40 years of fighting HIV came directly from community leadership, and a focus on equity. 

But it’s not clear whether planning for the next pandemic is heeding these lessons. Karrar Karrar, who heads up Health Policy at Save the Children, and Samantha Rick, who leads AVAC’s PPPR policy advocacy, have been tracking these efforts closely. They explain exactly what commitments for equity are needed and who needs to hear this advocacy and when.