Health advocates have urged the European Union (EU) to support health equity provisions in the ongoing negotiations for the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, warning that weak rules could repeat the vaccine inequality witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The call was made on Tuesday in Abuja at a press briefing organised by AIDS Healthcare Foundation Nigeria (AHF) and other Civil Society Organisations to discuss negotiations around the Pandemic Agreement and the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) Annex Negotiations.
Speaking at the event, Country Programme Director of AHF Nigeria, Echey Ijezie, said the EU must stop blocking equity provisions and facilitate the conclusion of a fair and effective agreement.
Mr Ijezie noted that a weak Annex could lead to a recurrence of what he described as “vaccine apartheid” experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting countries at risk.
He stressed the need for the EU to align its position with the values of solidarity and fairness it publicly promotes by supporting mandatory benefit-sharing, legal certainty, and real accountability in the agreement.
According to him, developing countries are demanding binding obligations rather than voluntary arrangements, noting that clear and enforceable obligations were necessary to build trust and ensure fairness in global health response.
He said a strong PABS Annex is critical, noting that it is not merely symbolic but essential to saving lives.
He added that the EU’s position remain pivotal, as it could either unlock progress in the negotiations or weaken the final outcome.
Debate over benefit-sharing
In his remarks, the president of Lawyers Alert, Romy Mum, criticised the attempts to maintain exclusive control of medical technologies in wealthier countries.
Mr Mum emphasised that issues of pandemics and lives are too important to be commercialised, hence the need for equity and justice before signing of the pandemic agreement ratification.
He said, “when we are collecting pathogens, we do that from all over the world, but when the drug diagnostics are ready, then you are saying the benefits should not be equal.”
He added that benefits should not mean that the Global North controls licensing, distribution, and decides when the Global South can access them.
“So let that global framework not be signed except and only if the annex is made equitable, equitable in how we gets the drugs, how we diagnose and all of that should be equal because the pathogens gotten to do the drugs are from all over the world,” he said.
He warned that pandemics do not recognise national or economic boundaries.
Mr Ijezie also warned that without equitable benefit-sharing, efforts by countries to strengthen regional production and achieve health sovereignty could be undermined.
He explained that advocacy efforts were focused on key EU powers because of the bloc’s central role in the negotiations, noting that a shift in its position could help break the current deadlock and ensure a more equitable global pandemic agreement.
Demand for transparency
The National Secretary, Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), Martin Egbanubi, emphasised the rights for every citizen to access healthcare, urging the government to prioritise the health needs of Nigerians.
Mr Egbanubi urged the government to invest and commence local production of vaccines to handle health emergencies.
He urged Africans to be committed to advocacy, invest in research and development to be able to produce, rather than relying on other nations for support.
“We must come up with strategies for tackling health emergencies.It is not something we should leave to chat, because the next pandemic, we may not be as lucky as the last one, our ecosystem may not be able to save us,” he said.
Background
The debate over equity in the proposed pandemic agreement is rooted in the unequal access to vaccines and medical supplies witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, data from the WHO showed that by mid-2022, more than 70 per cent of people in high-income countries had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with less than 20 per cent in many African countries.
Public health advocates described the imbalance as “vaccine inequity,” warning that it prolonged the pandemic by allowing the virus to continue spreading and mutating in regions with limited vaccine access.
The disparities triggered global calls for stronger rules to ensure fair access to vaccines, medicines and diagnostics during health emergencies.
In response, member states of the WHO launched the global WHO Pandemic Agreement negotiations in 2021, aimed at improving international cooperation, preparedness and equitable access to medical tools during future outbreaks.
The agreement was adopted by the World Health Assembly on 20 May 2025, marking a historic moment for global public health.
A key element of the negotiations is the PABS system, which seeks to ensure that countries that share pathogen samples also benefit from the vaccines, treatments and diagnostic technologies developed from them.
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Nigeria’s experience during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout illustrates the broader global inequality that health advocates are seeking to address.
Nigeria received its first shipment of vaccines in March 2021, when nearly four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrived through the global COVAX facility, months after vaccination campaigns had already begun in several high-income countries.
Health experts say the delays revealed Africa’s heavy dependence on imports and donations for vaccines, strengthening calls for equitable global health rules and expanded local manufacturing capacity across the continent.