SouthNews No. 559, 19 June 2026
Global South Countries Reaffirm Common Purpose to Advance Equity in the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System and the Pandemic Agreement
By Dr. Viviana Muñoz Téllez
The South Centre convened a high-level meeting on 12 June 2026, from 9:30 to 11:00 AM, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Geneva. It brought together ambassadors and other senior representatives and experts of developing-country delegations engaged in the negotiations on the Annex to Article 12 of the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement (the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System (PABS) Annex), ahead of the seventh meeting of the open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG7), scheduled on 6 to 17 July 2026 in Geneva.
The meeting provided an opportunity for participating delegations to take stock of the IGWG process to date, to exchange assessments of the current state of the PABS Annex text, and to articulate their priorities and negotiating strategy for the next phase, with a view to strengthening coordination and unity among developing countries including the Group for Equity (GoE) and the African Group (AG) in pursuit of an equitable and legally binding outcome.
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This article was tagged: African Group, Group for Equity (GoE), Intergovernmental Working Group on the WHO Pandemic Agreement (IGWG), Pandemic, Pandemic Agreement, Pandemics, Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS), World Health Organization (WHO)
