WHO WATCH: Sixth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Agreement | Mar. 23

‘The sixth meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Agreement will be conducted in hybrid format on 23–28 March 2026, from 09:00–13:30, 14:00–16:30 and 18:00–20:30, with the closing session on 28 March from 20:30-23:00.

‘In May 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement under Article 19 of the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Through resolution WHA78.1, the Health Assembly established an open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) to undertake several tasks, including, as a priority, drafting and negotiating an annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system. This PABS System is a multilateral system for safe, transparent and accountable access and benefit-sharing for PABS materials and sequence information.

‘Par resolutions WHA78.1, the outcome of the work of the IGWG on the PABS annex will be submitted to the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly in 2026 for its consideration.’