Armed conflict and other humanitarian emergencies disrupt health systems in many ways: making healthcare less accessible to people in need; reducing the capacities of the health workforce; weakening health infrastructure and causing the degradation or collapse of other essential services on which health systems depend. Sometimes during conflict, health structures are themselves targeted, increasing the vulnerability of health systems. All this makes addressing pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR) in such settings extremely difficult, and means that, in reality, responses to the needs of people in these settings continuously fall short. As COVID-19 recedes in memory, it’s vital that the world retains the hard-won lessons of that pandemic and others that came before it, undertaking robust PPPR efforts in all settings – including humanitarian ones – and for all people.
In this post, ICRC’s Head of Health Dr. Micaela Serafini and ICRC Policy Adviser Avigail Shai outline the key issues which must be addressed in global efforts to agree on a Pandemic Accord, in order to ensure that those people most affected by armed conflict and violence are not left behind when – not if – the next pandemic strikes.
Read the full blog post here