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

GHSA Steering Group Secretariat; GHSA Preparation Task Force Team

The chair stressed that the momentum and window of opportunity to concretely improve health security is right now and all agreed that GHSA partners should stay vigilant and raise the profile of health security agenda in all relevant political processes. The commitment has already been strong. The head of the US delegation, Senior Director Laura Holgate reported back to the GHSA Steering Group from the successful September 26 th High Level Event where over 100 new, concrete GHSA commitments were made to improve national, regional or global capacity. The implementation of these commitments, including through the 11 Action Packages, will be an important 2015 focus, with the target of measurable achievements on each commitment and in each Action Package area before the September, 2015 Seoul event. The strong US commitment to prevent new outbreaks of infectious diseases was further highlighted in President Obama's recent State of The Union speech. All sectors, within and outside of the governments should be engaged in the GHSA. This is achieved only by whole-ofgovernment and whole-of-society approaches. Ms. Holgate also mentioned the G20 countries' commitment to build capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to infectious disease threats; report progress, and work to announce a timeline for establishing capacity across all West African and other vulnerable nations during the May 2015 World Health Assembly.