Global Summit to bolster pandemic preparedness

The Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will help to build a world that is better prepared for pandemic threats.

CEPI, Brazil’s Ministry of Health and Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) will co-host a unique global gathering of pandemic preparedness and response experts to advance the global pandemic preparedness agenda.

The Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit 2024, taking place on 29/30 July in Rio de Janeiro, will convene R&D experts, government officials, civil society representatives, and leaders from global health and industry organizations from around the world. 

Building on the learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Summit will focus on three central themes of the global pandemic preparedness agenda that, if designed and aligned in a complementary manner, could transform the world’s ability to respond quickly and equitably to the next Disease X:

• Enabling equitable access to vaccines, medicines and other health technologies through strengthening local and regional production capacity.
• Delivering the 100 Days Mission for vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
• Enhancing global disease surveillance.

Partners at FIND, the International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Unitaid, WHO, and the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence are contributing to the design of the Summit programme. The Summit will be livestreamed, and the proceedings, outcomes and recommendations will be published and delivered to global decision-makers to support international pandemic preparedness efforts.

Reinvigorating momentum for pandemic preparedness

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fragmented nature of the global health and pandemic preparedness and response ecosystem and underlined the urgent need to establish sustainable, geographically diverse regional capabilities for the R&D, manufacturing and supply of vaccines, treatments and diagnostics to mitigate against future supply shortages in underserved regions, particularly those in the Global South. 

However, while the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to reverberate around the globe, political and public attention are at risk of being subsumed by other global crises, threatening this once in a generation opportunity to transform the way the world responds to pandemic threats for the benefit of all. 

In this challenging global context, the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit aims to reinvigorate momentum for pandemic preparedness and response. The convening will foster the spirit of collaboration and collective challenge needed to strengthen local and regional production capacity, deliver the 100 Days Mission, enhance global disease surveillance and – ultimately – to build a world that is better prepared to meet the challenges of viral threats swiftly and equitably.

The inaugural Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit was co-hosted in London by CEPI and the UK Government in March 2022, at which the global community came together to commit to the 100 Days Mission and pledge over US$1.5 billion  to CEPI to help kick start the organization's pandemic-busting plan.