Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to agree on creating a global framework to deal with pandemics under the leadership of the U.N. secretary-general when they meet for the Ise-Shima summit next week, a government source said Thursday.
With the World Health Organization facing criticism that it responded too slowly to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa in 2014 due to the lack of an initial response mechanism, the G-7 will urge multiple international organizations to establish a new framework in a declaration to be released at the two-day meeting in Mie Prefecture through May 27.
The declaration is expected to call for a procedure under which the WHO and U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs would work together to respond to high-severity disease outbreaks under the instructions of the U.N. secretary-general.