The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) is an independent monitoring and accountability body to ensure preparedness for global health crises. Comprised of political leaders, agency principals and world-class experts, the Board provides an independent and comprehensive appraisal for policy makers and the world about progress towards increased preparedness and response capacity for disease outbreaks and other emergencies with health consequences. In short, the work of the GPMB will be to chart a roadmap for a safer world.

Created in response to recommendations by the UN Secretary General’s Global Health Crises Task Force in 2017, the GPMB was co-convened by the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group and formally launched in May 2018. The GPMB is led by its co-chairs, Elhadj As Sy, Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation Board, former Secretary General of the IFRC, and Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and former WHO Director-General.

There are severe health and economic costs of failing to adequately prepare for and manage disease outbreaks and other health emergencies for countries and communities globally. Recent health emergencies, including the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak, shed light on the major gaps in sustained political will, action, and sustainable financing for preparedness; national public health systems’ capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to health crises from the local to global levels; community trust deficits in local health systems; along with a need to accelerate research and development, and to enhance global and regional coordination and capabilities. Since then, multiple international expert panels have recommended specific reforms in these areas and many institutions have strengthened their accountability mechanisms. But gaps, weaknesses and inefficiencies remain.

The GPMB has a small secretariat, which supports the Board in its monitoring and advocacy work. The Secretariat is hosted by the World Health Organization and its operations follow WHO’s rules, regulation and procedures, but it works independently and reports to the GPMB co-Chairs.

Contact the secretariat at:gpmbsecretariat@who.int