Women Leaders Must Pave the Way Forward in Preparedness
By Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland
As the Co-chair of The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), established by The World Bank and World Health Organization in 2018, I have seen first hand what the global landscape for pandemic preparedness looks like. Last year, we launched our inaugural annual report A World At Risk, sounding the alarm about the many gaps in our preparedness, and warning of the great risk our world could experience with a highly infectious respiratory virus.
We now find ourselves in the middle of the devastating novel coronavirus crisis. Collectively, we must learn from this crisis to set forth a bold course of urgent actions that countries and our multilateral system now must swiftly take up in order for everyone’s future to be more secure.
During this year’s UN General Assembly, the GPMB is once again calling on the world to urgently act with our new report, A World in Disorder. The report puts forward multiple calls to action for governments, multilateral stakeholders, and individuals–actions we are all responsible to take if we want to not only recover from this pandemic, but be more capable to handle the next. It is not enough to stop this pandemic currently wreaking havoc on not only our health systems, but our economic and social systems as well. We must also take this moment to build the strong, sustainable, and inclusive systems we want to see in the future to help us be prepared for the next pandemic when it undoubtedly comes.
We can take lessons learned from our experience with COVID-19 to help inform the systems we are trying to build back stronger. Throughout the global fight against the pandemic, we have seen several examples of women leaders who have led the charge against the virus and protected their people in an impressive way, with decisive action and an evidence-based approach guiding them. In many of the countries that were able to quickly contain the virus and stop community transmission, women leaders have been at the helm. It’s clearer now, more than ever, that leadership is crucial at all levels of society, and that women must be at the center of more effective solutions going forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the cracks in our societies, shining a light on exactly where we need to come together to strengthen our systems and responses to deliver on our promises of health for all. The reality is that until we take steps for inclusive, transformative policy, progress will continue to be slow. I’m proud to say that the GPMB has a good representation of women from across the world–ensuring we have a variety of lived experiences represented as we work to recommend needed changes across the whole-of-society to improve our collective global pandemic preparedness. This is how it needs to be in all of our institutions if we want to make lasting impact and change for good.
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland is the former Prime Minister of Norway and former Director-General of the World Health Organization. She currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, Deputy Chair of The Elders, and as a board member of the United Nations Foundation.