COVID-19 Pandemic and Reimagination of Multilateralism through Global Health Diplomacy

Nippun Gupta,Jaspal Kaur,Vijay Kumar Chattu,Sandeep Singh,Bawa Singh

doi:10.3390/su132011551

Abstract

The ongoing pandemic COVID-19 has made it very clear that no one is safe until everyone is safe. But how can everyone be safe when the pandemic has broken every nerve of the economy and put an extra burden on the already crippled healthcare systems in low-income countries? Thus, the pandemic has changed the orientation of domestic as well as global politics, with many geopolitical shifts. The exponential growing infected cases and more than four million deaths has demanded a global response in terms of multilateralism. However, declining multilateralism and the need for its reforms was a much-delayed response. Given this context, this paper aimed to link the decline of multilateralism in the face of the pandemic by highlighting various instances of its failure and success; and highlighting the need for its revival. The article critically examines and evaluates the responses of multilateralism and global health diplomacy (GHD) during the pandemic. The ongoing black swan kind of event (an unexpected event) has obligated global leadership to think in terms of the revival of multilateralism through GHD. Historically, multilateralism through GHD has been shown to play an important role in managing and combating pandemics. The article further discusses various theoretical aspects such as sovereignty and hegemonic stability theory as reasons for the failing of multilateralism. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of foresight in reviving multilateralism in the pursuit of a more sustainable future.

Highlights

Introduction published maps and institutional affilCOVID-19 has plunged the world into a global health crisis that has not excluded any sector of life
The COVID-19 Pandemic has had an influence on every aspect of life, with the health sector bearing the brunt of the damage
The revival of multilateralism was an important lesson to work upon, as it was a long pending revival that was even coerced by several crises such as terrorism, climate change, and other transnational crisis

Summary

Health Negotiations by Multilaterals and Why the Need for Global Response?

The World Health Organization (WHO), following the precedence of the International. Sanitary Convention (ISC, 1860), became a multilateral health institution in 1948 with a substantial global mandate. For the facilitation of vaccine equity, an alliance such as COVAX is crucial, which envisages the pandemic not turning into an epidemic This initiative is the best example of public–private partnerships (PPP), making it a multi-stakeholder program, which is the only way out for every trans-national issue. The SAARC Summit 2020, wherein the Indian PM had extended the US$ 1 million for the SAARC Emergency Fund for COVID, can be taken as a major step for controlling and combatting the pandemic [38] This gesture was predicted as a revival of the SAARC, as the famous saying goes, “Never Miss a Crisis”, which was the best way to revive the association. The failure to anticipate the rising demand for the vaccine and lack of investment in low-middle Income countries was the reason for the failure of the COVAX [36].

Multilateralism

Findings

Conclusions