Join us at What Leaders Must Do to Prevent the Next Pandemic Crisis, an in-person UN General Assembly week side event hosted by Pandemic Action Network, The Elders, and the Former Co-chairs and panel members of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response on Tuesday, September 19, 8:00-9:45am ET.
How can this year’s UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response serve as a springboard for action (or change) into 2024 and beyond?
The COVID-19 pandemic has cost more than 24 million lives, tens of trillions of dollars, and triggered the biggest setbacks in a generation to reducing global poverty, inequality, and achieving global development goals. Yet, rather than acting on the devastating lessons of the global COVID crisis and previous disease outbreaks, along with concrete, evidence-based calls for action, world leaders are inadvertently neglecting those lessons by seemingly lowering their ambitions as they focus on a confluence of other global crises — many of which have been triggered or worsened by the pandemic. Now is the time to recognize common connections between existential threats, and take action to address them head on.
At UNGA78, Pandemic Action Network, The Elders, and the Former Co-chairs and panel members of the Independent Panel and partners will convene current and former heads-of-state and government, stakeholders from current government, multilateral organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector to preview what is required from the UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response and lay out a 2024 action-oriented agenda to build a pandemic-resilient future for all.
We hope you will join us! Full program, invitations for in-person attendance, and live stream details to follow. Please note that as space is limited, an expression of interest does not guarantee an invitation to attend.
Event Participants
Keynote panel speakers (in alphabetical order):
– Moderator: Eloise Todd, Executive Director & Co-founder, Pandemic Action Network
– The Right Honourable Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, former Co-Chair of The Independent Panel, and new member of The Elders
– Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Member of The Elders, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
– President Mary Robinson, Former President of the Republic of Ireland, Chair of The Elders
– President Juan Manuel Santos, Former President of Colombia, Member of The Elders
Main panel speakers (in alphabetical order):
– Moderator: Carolyn Reynolds, Co-founder, Pandemic Action Network (moderator)
– Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, UNAIDS
– The Right Honourable Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, former Co-Chair of The Independent Panel and new member of The Elders
– Alejandro Solano Ortiz, Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs, Costa Rica
– Major General (ret) Paul Friedrichs, Inaugural Director, Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, Executive Office of the President, The White House
– Joy Phumaphi, Global Preparedness Monitoring Board
– Dr. Magda Robalo, President and co-founder of The Institute for Global Health and Development
– Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Member of The Elders, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
– Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population and Global Financing Facility, World Bank Group
