COVID-19 and the Response of International Organisations
Global response to COVID-19 pandemic has placed international institutions under scrutiny. First, the United Nations and its organ – the Security Council failed to bring in a Resolution on the issue. During the COVID-19 crises, the Security Council appeared to be furthering the power dynamics of the big powers. China which had taken over the rotating presidency of Security Council in March 2020, blocked to consider any Resolution about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Second, the Covid-19 has also brought into the spotlight the WHO. While the agency managed the global responses to the SARS epidemic in 2003, the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009, the Ebola epidemic in 2014–16, and the Zika epidemic in 2015–16, its’ response during the COVID-19 was marred by its pandering to China.
In the wake of SARS, the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s governing body, strengthened the International Health Regulations (IHR), the core legal prescriptions governing state conduct concerning infectious disease. The new IHR gave the WHO’s director-general the authority to declare a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ and required member states to increase their pandemic-response capacities. Meanwhile, an entire multilateral ecosystem of global public health arrangements blossomed alongside the WHO and its IHR, including the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (now called GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance), the Global Health Security Agenda, the World Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility, and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The WHO’s leadership under Tedros Adhanom, was accused of delay in declaring COVID-19 a pandemic under China’s influence. This undoubtedly harmed global preparedness in the early days of the outbreak. There is no substitute for a structured, coordinated global response in which international organizations will have to play an active role. However, considering that such organizations are not hermetically sealed off from the political environments, reforms should be articulated towards improving transparency and mechanisms to demand accountability on critical decisions. It is time that New Delhi calls for reforming international organisations.
