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Pandemic Readiness in an Uncertain World
May 2025
This set of four policy briefs from the Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, sets out a path forward to continue making the world safer from pandemic threats.
Informed by an understanding of progress to date, the four briefs provide a pragmatic, yet ambitious path forward on issues of financing, access to outbreak and pandemic medical countermeasures, monitoring and accountability, and high-level political leadership – the foundation for all progress
Leaders from every political system can—and must—act in the knowledge that pandemic threats are looming. They can strike anytime, anywhere, and they will strike fast.
On finance, a wide net is needed to ensure pandemic readiness is treated as a public good. Far more regional and domestic investment is needed, supported by a simpler, more transparent and effective global architecture. Equally, countries that simply cannot afford prevention or response, including those most vulnerable to climate change and conflict, must also not be left behind. If they are not safe, none of us are safe. This is not about charity and aid, but investment in our collective safety and security.
On access to medical countermeasures. COVID-19 showed we can rapidly produce tools like vaccines when crisis strikes, but charity cannot be relied upon to ensure access for all. Containing future pandemic threats demands regional self-reliance. Here we take a deeper dive to regional and large-country access to innovation and manufacturing and recommend the finance and governance shifts that must happen, including on technology and knowledge transfer if the principles of equity and solidarity are to be met, and access available to all.
On monitoring of pandemic risks and readiness, the systems are fragmented, and neither transparent nor independent enough, with blind spots endangering us all. Overall, we do not know if countries or institutions are ready to respond. We consider the range of monitoring we believe is required, from pandemic risks to organizational and country preparedness and recovery, and the accountability that must underpin this all, including through the pandemic agreement.
Finally, on the next UN High Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response in 2026. This is a decisive opportunity to enhance cohesion in a system that relies on a diverse array of actors. It is a moment to advance efforts towards a common emergency platform for existential threats like pandemics, which is in the interest of the safety and security of every one of us. Work must start now–including through the World Health Assembly, the G7, G20, and regional gatherings–to set the stage for a bold political declaration at the UNGA in 2026.
This is a time of great change and challenge for global health and development cooperation. Countries and organisations must grapple with this change now, because the volatile biosystem will not wait. Yet the most difficult moments can also usher change. The Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel see that with bold leadership and vision, something new can be forged.
We must rethink and build a new system. It must be one where leadership and power are more distributed. Where countries and regions are in charge of building resilient futures. We can have a world where nations choose their paths but work together towards a shared vision of health and safety of people and planet.