The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response produced a rich series of evidence-based documents. These include its main report presented to the World Health Assembly in May 2021: COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic, 15 evidence-based background papers, a policy brief, a report reflecting front line worker voices; a progress report to the Executive Board in January 2021; as well as Co-Chair statements, news releases, multimedia materials and meeting reports.
In addition the former Co-Chairs published a six-month accountability report entitled Losing Time: End this Pandemic and Secure the Future in November 2021; a one year assessment report entitled Transforming or Tinkering? Inaction lays the groundwork for the next pandemic in May 2022; and in May of 2023, A Road Map for a World Protected from Pandemic Threats. in June 2024, three years years after their main report, the former Co-Chairs published a follow-up report, No Time to Gamble: Leaders Must Unite to Prevent Pandemics (see also the Executive Summary).
The Panel also commissioned several peer-reviewed articles, which were published in The Lancet, Nature Medicine, and as a British Medical Journal Collection.
All documents can be accessed through the links below.
Main Report and follow up
View the Main Report page, which includes the accompanying documents, including a summary, the companion evidence-based narrative and a series of background documents.
Six-month progress report
The former Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel, HE Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Rt. Hon Helen Clark released Losing Time: End this Pandemic and Secure the Future, as an assessment of progress six months after the Panel issued its main report.
One-year assessment report
The former Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel, HE Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Rt. Hon Helen Clark released Transforming or Tinkering?: Inaction now lays the groundwork for the next pandemic, to assess progress against the Independent Panel’s recommendations one year after the Panel issued its main report.
Commissioned Peer-Reviewed Publications
The British Medical Journal Collection: COVID-19 Preparedness and Response – Implications for future pandemics. This collection comprises unparalleled analyses of 28 high, middle and low-income country responses to covid-19 and draws on the work and analysis of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Based on real-world experience, the collection provides policymakers with a road map to prepare for the next health threat, including whole-of-society approaches, treating pandemic tools as a global commons, and ensuring equity, communities and human rights are central to preparing for and responding to the next threat. (H. Legido-Quigley, A.S. Jung, V. Haldane et. al; 29 Nov. 2021)
The Lancet: How an Outbreak Became a Pandemic – a chronological analysis of crucial junctures and international obligations in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper includes a meticulous analysis of the Independent Panel’s authoritative chronology (see also multimedia version), and helps to pinpoint where the International Health Regulations’ obligations are not precise enough, or fail to encourage countries and decision makers to more proactively respond to outbreaks with pandemic potential. The analysis shows that a reset of the global health and health security system as a whole is required, including specific reforms to the International Health Regulations, and agreement on a new international legal instrument, such as a pandemic treaty. (S. Singh, A. Phelan et al.; 8 Nov. 2021)
Nature Medicine: Health systems resilience in managing the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from 28 countries. Through a combination of literature review, national government submissions and interviews with experts, the authors conducted a comparative analysis of national responses. They report on domains addressing governance and financing, health workforce, medical products and technologies, public health functions, health service delivery and community engagement to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The authors then synthesize four salient elements that underlie highly effective national responses and offer recommendations toward strengthening health systems resilience globally. (V. Haldane, H. Legido-Quigley, et. al.; 17 May 2021.)
Policy brief
The Independent Panel developed a policy brief describing the global architecture for pandemic preparedness and response that would result from implementation of the Panel’s recommendations.
The Secretariat has also developed a mapping of which actors need to take action, when, entitled From Recommendations to Political Decisions.
No more pandemics! Bearing witness to COVID-19 and committing to a more secure future
This report reflects the voices of hundreds of front-line people the Panel heard from during public meetings. They include women in health, nurses, midwives, people working in human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, mayors, and on non-communicable diseases.
2nd Report on Progress
This Second Report on Progress represented a synthesis of Independent Panel progress in its work from September to December 2020; on initial critical evident lessons, and on ways in which the response to COVID-19 could be reshaped. The Co-Chairs presented this report to the WHO Executive Board in January 2021.
Language versions: 2nd Report on Progress in Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian
Meeting Reports
The Independent Panel formally met approximately every six weeks between September 2020 and May 2021. Below are reports of each of those meetings.
Core Documents
Core documents include the Program of Work, the Terms of Reference and the World Health Assembly Resolution which formed the basis for the Panel’s creation.
Additional Documents
Additional document-types include the Co-Chairs’ remarks, news releases and videos. Select the category (e.g. Co-Chairs’ remarks, News, Documents) to see the full list from each category.
Videos
All Independent Panel videos are available on Vimeo.
An archive of the Vimeo videos is available here.