The U.N. health agency on Tuesday adopted a landmark Pandemic Agreement on tackling future health crises, struck after more than three years of negotiations sparked by the COVID-19 crisis.

The accord aims to prevent the disjointed response and international disarray that surrounded the COVID-19 pandemic by improving global coordination and surveillance, as well as access to vaccines, in any future pandemics.

The World Health Organization's decision-making annual assembly adopted the plan on Tuesday at its Geneva headquarters.