Global landmark pandemic accord sets new milestone for health and care workers

GENEVA (ILO News) – The COVID-19 pandemic was a global wake-up call. It exposed not only the fragility of health systems but also the deep inequities faced by the workers who held those systems together. From overburdened doctors and nurses to under-protected delivery drivers and maritime workers, the crisis revealed that pandemic resilience depends on the protection and empowerment of essential workers.

The World Health Assembly has adopted the first-ever Pandemic Agreement, a historic accord forged through three years of negotiation. Its goal is to ensure a more equitable, coordinated, and effective global response to future pandemics. While the Agreement includes critical provisions for vaccines, diagnostics and supply chains, it also recognizes the central role of labour – particularly health and care workers – in pandemic preparedness and response.

The Pandemic Agreement provisions

To advance universal health coverage and pandemic resilience, the Agreement emphasizes the urgent need to build and strengthen health systems by investing in a skilled, trained, and equitably distributed health and care workforce. This includes ensuring competency-based education and training, fair deployment, adequate remuneration, and long-term retention strategies for all health workers, including community health workers and volunteers.

The Agreement also calls for equitable approaches that prevent pandemics from deepening existing disparities in access to health services, particularly among marginalized populations. It highlights the importance of addressing gender and youth inequalities, ensuring the meaningful participation, safety, and empowerment of all health and care workers, while actively eliminating discrimination, stigma and unequal pay.

To protect those on the front lines, the Agreement underscores the need to prioritize the safety and security of health workers, including guaranteed access to pandemic-related products, and the implementation of measures to prevent violence and threats against personnel, facilities and equipment during health emergencies.

Finally, the Agreement calls for the establishment of effective workforce planning systems to ensure the timely and efficient deployment of trained personnel during pandemics – reinforcing the principle that health security cannot be achieved without labour security.

ILO’s role: From crisis to commitment

The agreement is a significant breakthrough in the way the world handles pandemics and health crises. It includes key provisions to ensure decent work and protection measures for health and care workers and other essential workers. 

“The ILO stands ready to work with its member states and social partners to support the application of this important multilateral accord”, said Maurizio Bussi, Director of the ILO Priority Action Programme on crisis situations.

The WHO Pandemic Agreement is more than a legal framework – it is a moral commitment to protect those who protect us. It acknowledges that public health and labour rights are inseparable, and that future pandemic preparedness must be rooted in equity, justice and solidarity.