The Prague Post - Ukraine war, pandemic push to colour WHO international meet

EUR -
AED 4.151031
AFN 80.247598
ALL 98.522497
AMD 440.676983
ANG 2.03683
AOA 1036.333768
ARS 1328.501642
AUD 1.753235
AWG 2.034242
AZN 1.925715
BAM 1.955254
BBD 2.287261
BDT 137.631579
BGN 1.955247
BHD 0.427081
BIF 3369.55937
BMD 1.130135
BND 1.46989
BOB 7.827815
BRL 6.392724
BSD 1.132784
BTN 95.735275
BWP 15.423694
BYN 3.707265
BYR 22150.636537
BZD 2.275465
CAD 1.562355
CDF 3244.616608
CHF 0.934673
CLF 0.027965
CLP 1073.13043
CNY 8.217891
CNH 8.149807
COP 4824.153313
CRC 572.840089
CUC 1.130135
CUP 29.948565
CVE 110.234228
CZK 24.915515
DJF 201.723688
DKK 7.46443
DOP 66.531427
DZD 149.637228
EGP 57.340993
ERN 16.952018
ETB 151.585884
FJD 2.549475
FKP 0.851539
GBP 0.851871
GEL 3.09701
GGP 0.851539
GHS 15.915557
GIP 0.851539
GMD 80.80897
GNF 9812.260857
GTQ 8.724564
GYD 237.693647
HKD 8.758611
HNL 29.418788
HRK 7.535063
HTG 147.848727
HUF 404.554691
IDR 18609.868588
ILS 4.068903
IMP 0.851539
INR 95.685382
IQD 1483.985738
IRR 47592.794167
ISK 146.13813
JEP 0.851539
JMD 179.679841
JOD 0.801496
JPY 163.848602
KES 146.529096
KGS 98.830698
KHR 4538.73299
KMF 491.047735
KPW 1017.121052
KRW 1581.770607
KWD 0.346545
KYD 0.944036
KZT 585.226631
LAK 24496.161771
LBP 101499.66585
LKR 339.215306
LRD 226.566753
LSL 20.853079
LTL 3.336994
LVL 0.683608
LYD 6.185273
MAD 10.503968
MDL 19.484561
MGA 5144.563869
MKD 61.512828
MMK 2372.844806
MNT 4038.114401
MOP 9.044175
MRU 45.120404
MUR 51.229425
MVR 17.4158
MWK 1964.251669
MXN 22.131707
MYR 4.816073
MZN 72.328998
NAD 20.853079
NGN 1812.408452
NIO 41.688362
NOK 11.769961
NPR 153.17624
NZD 1.900983
OMR 0.434829
PAB 1.132784
PEN 4.153141
PGK 4.696689
PHP 62.73419
PKR 318.31924
PLN 4.27311
PYG 9063.469886
QAR 4.133846
RON 4.978925
RSD 117.167292
RUB 93.723837
RWF 1598.853672
SAR 4.238098
SBD 9.425806
SCR 16.068296
SDG 678.649932
SEK 10.914054
SGD 1.46884
SHP 0.888108
SLE 25.756185
SLL 23698.337407
SOS 647.41927
SRD 41.617247
STD 23391.502773
SVC 9.912233
SYP 14693.799358
SZL 20.844181
THB 37.390543
TJS 11.724527
TMT 3.955471
TND 3.398551
TOP 2.646892
TRY 43.619796
TTD 7.681856
TWD 34.716946
TZS 3050.648396
UAH 47.296997
UGX 4149.841551
USD 1.130135
UYU 47.53673
UZS 14612.920729
VES 98.025574
VND 29389.148119
VUV 136.850416
WST 3.140109
XAF 655.773937
XAG 0.0353
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.054245
XDR 0.815572
XOF 655.773937
XPF 119.331742
YER 276.48782
ZAR 20.780405
ZMK 10172.570869
ZMW 31.441223
ZWL 363.902853
  • NGG

    0.0300

    71.68

    +0.04%

  • BCC

    3.4400

    96.15

    +3.58%

  • RIO

    1.1500

    59.7

    +1.93%

  • CMSC

    0.0700

    22.1

    +0.32%

  • SCS

    0.2700

    10.14

    +2.66%

  • GSK

    0.3200

    39.07

    +0.82%

  • BCE

    0.0100

    21.45

    +0.05%

  • RBGPF

    67.2100

    67.21

    +100%

  • JRI

    0.0600

    13.07

    +0.46%

  • RYCEF

    0.1300

    10.35

    +1.26%

  • BTI

    -0.1300

    43.17

    -0.3%

  • CMSD

    0.0600

    22.32

    +0.27%

  • AZN

    1.9300

    72.44

    +2.66%

  • VOD

    -0.1200

    9.61

    -1.25%

  • RELX

    0.9400

    55.02

    +1.71%

  • BP

    0.2400

    28.12

    +0.85%

Ukraine war, pandemic push to colour WHO international meet
Ukraine war, pandemic push to colour WHO international meet / Photo: FADEL SENNA - AFP

Ukraine war, pandemic push to colour WHO international meet

The Ukraine war looms large as the World Health Organization opens its main annual assembly Sunday, threatening to overshadow efforts on other health crises and a reform push aimed at preventing future pandemics.

Text size:

The UN health agency will kick off its 75th World Health Assembly Sunday afternoon, convening its 194 member states for their first largely in-person gathering since Covid-19 surfaced in late 2019.

The agenda will remain focused on the continuing coronavirus crisis and efforts to avert future pandemics.

But the war raging in Ukraine and rebukes of Russia for its invasion are expected to take centre stage.

Kyiv and its allies will present a resolution during the assembly harshly condemning Russia's invasion, and especially its more than 200 attacks on healthcare, including hospitals and ambulances, in Ukraine.

It is also to voice alarm at the "health emergency in Ukraine", and highlight the dire impacts beyond its borders, including how disrupted grain exports are deepening a global food security crisis.

"The Ukraine war is having a systemic impact on international organisations", a European diplomat told AFP, pointing to the "considerable amounts of time (spent) looking at the consequences for health in Ukraine, in Europe and in the world".

But while Russia has been shunned and pushed out of other international bodies over its invasion, no such sanctions are foreseen at the World Health Assembly.

"There's not a call to kick them out," a Western diplomat told AFP, acknowledging that the sanctions permitted under WHO rules are "very weak".

Moscow meanwhile flatly rejected rumours that it was planning to leave the WHO, insisting in a tweet Friday that they were "simply not true".

- Second term for Tedros -

The conflict is far from the only issue on this week's packed agenda.

Among other things, the assembly is expected to reappoint WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to a second five-year term.

His first term was turbulent, as he helped steer the global response to the pandemic and grappled with a range of other crises, including a sexual abuse scandal involving WHO staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But while the former Ethiopian health minister has faced his share of criticism, he has received broad backing and is running unopposed, guaranteeing him a second term.

There will be no shortage of challenges, with the Covid-19 pandemic still raging and demands for dramatic reforms of the entire global health system to help avert similar threats going forward.

And new health menaces are already looming, including hepatitis of mysterious origin that has been sickening children in many countries, and swelling numbers of monkeypox cases far from Central and West Africa where the disease is normally concentrated.

- Money makeover -

One of the major reforms up for discussion involves the WHO budget, with countries expected to greenlight a plan to boost secure and flexible funding to ensure the organisation can respond quickly to global health threats.

The WHO's two-year budget for 2020-21 ticked in at $5.8 billion, but only 16 percent of that came from regular membership fees.

The remainder came from voluntary contributions that are heavily earmarked by countries for particular projects.

The idea is to gradually raise the membership fee portion to 50 percent over nearly a decade, while WHO will be expected to implement a string of reforms, including towards more transparency on its financing and hiring.

"It will be important for WHO to implement reforms quickly," US Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Sheba Crocker said.

- Too slow -

The Covid pandemic laid bare major deficiencies in the global health system, and countries last year agreed numerous changes were needed to better prepare the world to face future pandemic threats.

Amendments are being considered to the International Health Regulations -- a set of legally binding international laws governing how countries respond to acute public health risks.

And negotiations are underway towards a new "legal instrument" -- possibly a treaty -- aimed at streamlining the global approach to pandemic preparedness and response.

But experts warn the reform process is moving too slowly.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who co-chaired an expert panel on pandemic preparedness, warned reporters that little had yet changed.

"At its current pace, an effective system is still years away, when a pandemic threat could occur at any time."

A.Slezak--TPP