7^th Global Health Security Agenda Ministerial Meeting Opens on 28^th November

Health ministers from around the world start discussion on health security issues and hold a joint press briefing. Open expert forums, the Disease X Exercise, and the ministerial meeting will give insights into the next pandemic.   

Osong, 28^th November 2022 – The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced today that they will jointly host the 7^th Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) Ministerial Meeting from 28^th to 30^th November in the Grand Hyatt Seoul.

This event is the first in-person ministerial meeting held in four years after the COVID-19 pandemic, under the theme of “Action for the Next Phase of the GHSA after COVID-19.”

This event will be attended by more than 200 people from 35 members, including the United States of America, the Republic of Indonesia, and the Republic of Uganda, as well as 10 international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).

The 7^th GHSA Ministerial Meeting inherits the basic spirit of the 2015 GHSA Ministerial Meeting and the Seoul Declaration. The hosting of the Meeting was reviewed, based on the necessity for global coordination, collaboration, and solidarity. Such necessity was agreed upon by the global community in the process of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hosting of the event was developed as a project of the 100-day Roadmap for COVID-19 Emergency Response of the Presidential Transition Committee for the inauguration of the present Government of the Republic of Korea. As the hosting was determined through the United States-Republic of Korea Leaders’ Joint Statement in 21^st May 2022, the GHSA members have gathered today in Seoul.

<Major Participants>

On 28^th November, the first day of the event, the opening ceremony will be followed by expert forums on six themes.

The opening ceremony will start with a welcoming speech by KDCA Commissioner PECK Kyong Ran. Afterwards, congratulatory remarks will be given by distinguished figures from the National Assembly and science. Next, there will be keynote speeches, respectively, by Dr. Anthony S. Fauch, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the United States, and by Professor Kim Kang-lip of Yonsei University (former Minister of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and a chair of the 2017 GHSA Steering Group meeting).

In a welcoming speech, Commissioner Peck will review the global community’s COVID-19 response over the past three years and emphasize the need for a global health security collaboration system to prepare for and respond to the next emerging and variant infectious diseases.

In a keynote speech, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci will make remarks on the importance of vaccine development, a major challenge highlighted through the COVID-19 pandemic response, as well as the need for global collaboration to respond to emerging infectious diseases.

Meanwhile, six out of nine expert forums will take place on 28^th November.

<The Themes of the Expert Forums>

Expert forum 1, run by the KDCA, will be held under the theme of ‘Health Security Capacity Building for National Immunization Programme after COVID-19.’ In this forum, experts will discuss governments’ policies and collaborative methods, regarding vaccination infrastructure, finance, vaccine accessibility, vaccine equity, and vaccination hesitancy to strengthen national vaccination programmes of the GHSA members.

In the afternoon, five expert forums will be held with the five themes as follows: legal preparedness, resource mobilization, One Health and the GHSA Action Packages, Korea-World Bank Group partnership for COVID-19 response, and future crisis preparedness.

The expert forums will be open to the public. Anyone can participate in the forums, with no admission fees charged, through on-site registration.

On 29^th November, there will be a Steering Group meeting, the ‘Disease X Exercise (a tabletop exercise),’ three expert forums (open to the public), and a banquet for delegations.

The Steering Group meeting aims to coordinate and evaluate the operation of the GHSA as well as the progress in the members’ implementation of the Action Packages. The Group’s permanent members include the Republic of Korea, the United States of America, the Italian Republic, and the Republic of Indonesia. Non-permanent members include the Netherlands, the World Bank, Finland, and Australia.

The Disease X Exercise is a tabletop exercise for responding to the outbreak and spread of an emerging infectious disease under a fictional scenario. In this simulation exercise, experts will share and discuss case studies, as well as exchange focus questions and answers.

On 30^th November, at the ministerial meeting, the members will adopt the New Seoul Declaration, in which they will evaluate the achievements made so far in the GHSA, confirm the areas that the global community should focus its effort on, and publicly state the future initiative.

In the immediately following joint press briefing, KDCA Commissioner Peck will give explanations, regarding the significance and outcomes of the 7^th Ministerial Meeting and the New Seoul Declaration, along with the Minister of Health of the Republic of Uganda, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the United States of America, and other distinguished participants from major countries.

On the other hand, on the first day, besides the open expert forums, the KDCA said that it will carry out bilateral diplomatic activities with governments’ representatives who visited Republic of Korea on the occasion of the GHSA event, to prepare for a future pandemic and strengthen collaboration.

On 28^th November, Commissioner Peck will have bilateral meetings with Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, the Acting Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) of the African Union, and Andrea Palm, the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. HHS.

In the bilateral meetings, Commissioner Peck and her counterparts will exchange opinions on the reform of health-related governance of the global community, including inter-governmental technology collaboration and the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) for future pandemic response.

KDCA Commissioner Peck Kyong Ran said: “As the Ministerial Meeting is held in Seoul at a critical moment for overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, the event will play a decisive role in connecting the past and future of the GHSA.”

Commissioner Peck added: “In this meeting, the members will evaluate the achievements made so far in the GHSA, and, at the same time, confirm the areas that they should focus more efforts on. Accordingly, the members will present the vision for the future of the GHSA.”