Round-up of GHSA Steering Group and Action Packages in 2015

GHSA Steering Group Secretariat; GHSA Preparation Task Force Team

This inaugural meeting of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) Steering Group was chaired by the Permanent from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of Finland. The Chair stressed the importance of the GHSA highlighting the unprecedented epidemic of Ebola which took the world by surprise last year. During the Finnish chairmanship, there will be a strong push toward implementing concrete GHSA commitments and toward concrete work at the country level in the form of cooperation across sectors. Commitments will continue to support existing international agreements and policies and will accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats. The Chair expressed hope that such an acceleration of effort as agreed under the GHSA would no longer be needed after the initial five year commitment has passed, as the GHSA targets/objectives should be embedded by that time in the mindsets of countries and international organizations.