Advocating for a safer, healthier world safe from pandemics Toolkit

What you can find in this toolkit by clicking in the links below

Launching and sustaining the drive

Concept and goals: From now to end of May 2024, mobilize the voices and stories of people from diverse backgrounds on how they were affected by COVID-19, providing an opportunity to galvanize them to advocate for a healthier and safer world, supported by a Pandemic Accord.

A key goal is to encourage Member States to continue on the path they commenced in 2021 to negotiate a Pandemic Accord to ensure the world does not suffer the effects of a pandemic again, as it did during COVID. Such encouragement to stay the course is vital in the face of the deluge of misinformation targeting governments and the process they lead.

How (social media, media, meetings), When, Who, What

How:

Lead and drive this effort through using your most effective, far-reaching, strategic advocacy channels.

Social media: Share written posts, pictures or video messages using the hashtags #PandemicAccord (always) and secondary options #AreWeReady (for a pandemic safe world) or #GetItDone (to show urgency to adopt a strong Pandemic Accord).

  • Be authentic, use plain language, post in your preferred language.
  • Depending on the audience you’re speaking to, share your story of how the pandemic affected you (loss of health-physical/mental, loved ones, work, schooling, lifestyle, opportunities), encourage others to understand why we must be ready for future pandemics or explain what the pandemic accord is, and how it’s aiming to help everyone be better prepared.
  • Personal stories of loss, and aspirational calls for how stronger collaboration, coordination and a Pandemic Accord, will be compelling and resonate.
  • Include factual information. When relevant, use fact checkers and links to reliable sources (available at the end of this document).
  • Don’t forget to tag influential stakeholders who can help spread the word or who are in decision making positions. Tag other members of your network.
  • ⁠Invite others to share their stories and experiences.
  • Amplify the stories and posts of others that resonate with you.
  • If you feel comfortable, host live conversations or use other social media tools to mobilize conversations where you and your friends/partners can share your thoughts on the importance of the Pandemic Accord, and show your backing for this process being led by your governments, and encourage world leaders to get it done.

Media: publish written commentaries, blogs or press releases. Aim for digital and TV interviews where possible to reach a broader audience.

Meetings: participate in events and forums with stakeholders to advocate and raise awareness around the Pandemic Accord.

When:

From now to end of May 2024. Essential date to start communicating by is 18 March 2024, ahead of the last round of Member State-led Negotiations on the Pandemic Accord.

The negotiations are set to conclude scheduled to culminate with the adoption of a Member State-drafted proposal at the 77th World Health Assembly, starting on that starts 27 May 2024.

Who:

Everyone is encouraged to participate. Networks of youth leaders, healthcare and other professional groups, patient groups and faith-based communities have already shown inspiring interest to support raise awareness raising on the importance of a safer, healthier world, and the role that an agreed Pandemic Accord can play in achieving this. See example of a youth-led campaign in the annexes.

What:

Visual, video, written and spoken (media) content that shows what the Pandemic Accord is, and is not, providing accurate information. Guidance on messaging below.

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Content

The Pandemic Accord is:

  • A once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect future generations from a repeat of the suffering and loss the world suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Designed to strengthen collaboration and coordination across sectors and ensure all people, including youth, healthcare professionals, community members, patients and all other members of society are protected, and prepared for the future pandemics.
  • Is being negotiated by Member States based on principles of solidarity, equity, science and evidence, respect for human rights and protection of national sovereignty over all health decision-making.
  • An initiative started, led and decided by governments of the world, ensuring solidarity and sovereignty.

The pandemic accord is NOT

  • Led, or a power grab by, WHO over national sovereignty. Governments are negotiating the Pandemic Accord and will decide what is contained in it.

Resources and messages

Click here for: Social media tiles for download in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish
Click here to support, share and sign up to the Global Citizen call to action from 18 March

Click on these links hashtag options, explainers , Member State and Co-Chair tesmonials

Messages: the following are proposals. They are free to be used but they are also meant to serve as examples for partners to prepare and share their own posts, in their own words.

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Youth messaging suggestions

Message 1:

We suffered more than many adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet we had no say in how to fight the virus. We call on our leaders to support the #PandemicAccord to ensure a safer future for us! #GetItDone

Message 2:

We, the youth/GenZ, have been severely affected by the #COVID19 pandemic. We lost our social life. Our educational opportunities were stopped. We support the decision by leaders to agree a #PandemicAccord so we don’t lose out again. #GetItDone

Message 3:

Depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges are on the rise among our friends/generation since #COVID19 happened. We need a #PandemicAccord, between all countries, to prevent this happening again!

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Health workers messaging suggestions

Message 1:

During #COVID19 many of my fellow nurses/doctors/midwives didn't have enough of the equipment to stay safe, or enough of tools to save every patient. It must not happen again. We need our leaders to make the #PandemicAccord happen. #GetItDone

Message 2:

#COVID19 pushed our hospitals to breaking point. We lost too many patients. We lost too many friends. Before the next pandemic comes to our doors, we must get behind our leaders who are developing a #PandemicAccord to help us prepare better for the next pandemic. Let’s #GetItDone.

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Patients messaging suggestion

I am one of the many people suffering from #LongCOVID. My life has changed ever since.

We must work together to make sure the pandemic catastrophe we faced does not happen again - to prevent and respond better next time.

Let's support the leaders to get the #PandemicAccord done.

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Generic messaging suggestions

Message 1:

#COVID19 was not an isolated occurrence. Another pandemic will happen. It is not a question of if, but when. We have a once-in-a-generation chance NOW to help the world anticipate and combat disease outbreaks. Support the #PandemicAccord. #AreWeReady

Message 2:

The #PandemicAccord is NOT led by @WHO. Governments are negotiating it and will decide what is contained in it. The Accord will NOT take away any country’s sovereignty. The Accord will NOT give WHO powers to quarantine people or impose lockdowns or mandatory vaccinations. The Accord will NOT give WHO powers to monitor people’s movements through digital passports.

Message 3:

A #PandemicAccord can help:

- equip health workers better

- equitable production of vaccines, medicines & tests

- detection of new outbreaks

- improve cooperation between countries

- protect individual rights & freedoms

... #AreWeReady / #GetItDone / #MakeItHappen [download video]

Message 4:

We all lost someone or something during the #COVID19 pandemic. But we can all do something to prevent it happening again. Let’s suppourt our leaders to get the #PandemicAccord done! [video]

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Calling out misinformation and disinformation

Just as mis- and disinformation undermined the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, so mis- and disinformation is undermining the negotiations on the pandemic accord and the amendments to the IHR, which are designed to keep the world safer from future pandemics.

Media fact checkers are constantly debunking sovereignty and other claims concerning the Pandemic Accord. Partner support to amplify this work would help counter the misinformation and disinformation.

Posts like the following draft below (change to suit your voice) could go with the below hashtags and links to examples of fact check stories:

Fake claims on the #PandemicAccord process are as virulent as a virus. Here is another, debunked by @Politifact https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/sep/05/facebook-posts/who-pandemic-preparedness-treaty-will-not-remove-h/

Factchecking examples include:

  • FACTLY 21 Feb 2024: No, Countries signing the WHO’s pandemic treaty do not cede their sovereignty
  • TECH ARP 21 Feb 2024: Did WHO DG order elimination of independent media
  • PolitiFact 12 Feb 2024 @Politifact : WHO pandemic preparedness treaty will not remove human rights protections, restrict freedoms
  • Fact Check 2 Feb 2024 @check_your_fact : FACT CHECK – NO, THE WHO HAS NOT UNVEILED A ‘GLOBAL POLICE FORCE’
  • AAP 2 Feb 2024 @AapFactcheck : Disease X conspiracy is beyond all sense
  • Austin-American Statesman Feb 2024: Pandemic treaty wouldn’t give the WHO power to forcibly vaccinate people
  • USA Today Fact Check 1 Feb 2024 @USATODAY : WHO hasn’t demanded surveillance powers; claim distorts proposed pandemic treaty
  • Lead Stories 1 Feb 2024 @leadstoriescom : Fact Check: WHO Did NOT Unveil ‘Global Police Force’ To Arrest Those Who Post Non-Mainstream Content Online
  • EFE Verifica (Spanish) 19 Dec 2023 @EFEVerifica : MÉXICO NO SE HA OPUESTO AL ACUERDO INTERNACIONAL SOBRE PANDEMIAS, QUE CONTINÚA NEGOCIÁNDOSE
  • Times of Malta fact check 1 Dec 2023 @TheTimesofMalta : Fact-check: Pandemic treaty will hand WHO ‘nearly unlimited powers’
  • DW 25 June 2023 @dwnews : Fact check: Conspiracy theories about the ‘pandemic treaty’
  • AFP @AFPFactCheck 20 June 2023: Posts misrepresenting draft WHO pandemic accord spread online in Thailand
  • AAP 15 June 2023 @AapFactcheck : Pandemic treaty won’t give UN health agency global control
  • The Journal, Ireland @ShaneARaymond @thejournal_ie : 2 June 2023: Debunked: Confusion over news article helps spread baseless claims about Pandemic Treaty
  • Public Health Communications Collaborative 28 May 2023 @PH_Comms : Resurfaced conspiracy theory falsely claims that a pandemic treaty allows WHO to control US policies
  • Factcheck.org 2 March 2023 @factcheckdotorg : WHO ‘Pandemic Treaty’ Draft Reaffirms Nations’ Sovereignty to Dictate Health Policy
  • USA Today Fact Check March 2023 @USATODAY : False claim that pandemic accord gives WHO control over US pandemic policies
  • AP 24 Feb 2023 @AP : WHO ‘pandemic treaty’ draft doesn’t sign over US sovereignty
  • Reuters Fact Check 25 May 2022 @ReutersFacts : The WHO is not planning to implement a ‘pandemic treaty’ that would strip member states of sovereign

Statements on disinformation and misinformation

  • Dr Tedros on 12 Feb 2024: “(A) major barrier is the litany of lies and conspiracy theories about the agreement: that it’s a power grab by the World Health Organization; that it will cede sovereignty to WHO; that it will give WHO power to impose lockdowns or vaccine mandates on countries; that it’s an ‘attack on freedom’; that WHO will not allow people to travel; and that WHO wants to control people’s lives. These are some of the lies that are being spread. If they weren’t so dangerous, these lies would be funny. But they put the health of the world’s people at risk. And that is no laughing matter. These claims are utterly, completely, categorically false. The pandemic agreement will not give WHO any power over any state or any individual, for that matter.… We cannot allow this historic agreement, this milestone in global health, to be sabotaged by those who spread lies, either deliberately or unknowingly.
  • Dr Tedros on 8 Nov 2023: We are operating amid a torrent of fake news, lies, conspiracy theories and mis- and disinformation. There are those who say – whether they believe it themselves or not – that the accord will cede sovereignty to WHO; that it will give the WHO Secretariat power to impose lockdowns or vaccine mandates on countries, and other nonsense. This agreement will not, and cannot, cede sovereignty to WHO. Period.
  • Dr Tedros on 23 March 2023: Countries will decide what the accord says, and countries alone, and countries will implement the accord in line with their own national laws.
  • The draft pandemic agreement text prepared by Member States reaffirms “the principle of sovereignty of States Parties in addressing public health matters” and that “States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the general principles of international law, the sovereign right to legislate and to implement legislation in pursuance of their health policies.”

Background for engagement with your audiences

The Pandemic Accord aims to address the gaps and challenges witnessed during the pandemic and ensure that we are better prepared for future health emergencies. The work to negotiate a Pandemic Accord is underpinned by the principles of equity, sovereignty of States Parties in addressing public health matters, science and evidence, respect for human rights, solidarity, accountability and responsibility.

  • The Purpose: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to prevent a repeat of the immense health, social and economic impacts that the world experienced from such a devastating health crisis, the countries of the world are working to develop an international legal agreement or instrumented, also known as the “pandemic accord,” and make needed amendments to the International Health Regulations.
  • The Process:

o WHO Member States decided to work together with the ultimate goal of making the world safer and better prepared to prevent and respond to future pandemics through stronger collaboration, solidarity and high-level political commitment.

o Governments made the at a special session of the World Health Assembly in December 2021 to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument (known as CA+) under the Constitution of WHO to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response and to provide their final outputs to the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly in May 2024.

o This is an ambitious timeline, but in view of the failings in global collation to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the gaps that still remain and the great impacts on human life and health, economies and societies, there is an urgent need to be better prepared for the next pandemic.

  • WHO Director-General Dr Tedros has described the:

o Pandemic Accord, rooted in the WHO Constitution, as a “a generational agreement among countries to work in cooperation—not in competition—to face shared threats with a shared response.”

o IHR amendments: “The proposed amendments reflect the critical need to strengthen the IHR to improve prevention, preparedness, and response to public health events that carry a risk of international spread.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on billions of people worldwide, highlighting the urgent need for stronger pandemic preparedness and response efforts. This was made visible by the negative impact COVID-19 had in areas like equal access to healthcare supplies and services, including PPE and vaccine accessibility, mental health, isolation of families and communities, spread of misinformation and disinformation, and the futures of people around the world. We must not forget that COVID continues to impact health, with continued circulation of the virus, and people all around the world living with Long-COVID.

Despite the divisions and challenges that COVID demonstrated, there is consensus on some points.

First, it is not a matter of if the next pandemic will occur but when.

And second, the world must be better prepared to prevent a repeat of the health and social impacts that occurred during COVID.

To do this, governments of the world, backed by the World Health Organization and multilateral partners, have launched a range of initiatives to boost pandemic preparedness globally. These include fixing medical equipment supply chains, financing for preparedness, and investing in local capacities to equip the Global South to better meet its own medical needs.

And, to solidify collaboration and coordination at the highest levels of government, WHO Member States launched negotiations on a convention, agreement or other international instrument (also known as a #PandemicAccord).

Relevant articles and stories

Recent stories that can be shared:

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