by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) and digital technologies have the potential to curb infectious disease outbreaks that have left the world on the brink.
This is according to a newly released report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), warning that pandemic risk is outpacing investments.
Titled “A World on the Edge: Priorities for a Pandemic-Resilient Future”, it indicates that a decade after Ebola exposed dangerous gaps in outbreak preparedness – and six years after COVID-19 turned those gaps into a global catastrophe – the world is not safer from pandemics.
New initiatives have improved aspects of preparedness but, overall, these efforts are being offset by the growing effects of rising geopolitical fragmentation, ecological disruption and global travel, especially as development assistance falls to levels not seen since 2009.
However, the report highlights the potential of AI and digital technologies to improve preparedness, especially for monitoring pandemic threats, but emphasises that without effective governance and safeguards, they could actually reduce health security and accelerate the access gaps that defined COVID-19.
“The world does not lack solutions,” said GPMB co-chair, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.
“But without trust and equity, those solutions will not reach the people who need them most.”
Grabar-Kitarovic said political leaders, industry and civil society could still change the trajectory of global preparedness if they turned their commitments into measurable progress before the next crisis struck.
The GPMB, which will conclude its mandate in 2026, identifies three concrete priorities for political leaders to reverse these trends: establish a permanent, independent monitoring mechanism to track pandemic risk; advance equitable access to life-saving vaccines, tests and treatments by concluding the Pandemic Agreement; and secure robust financing for both preparedness and “Day Zero” response activities.
The 2026 GPMB report was launched on Monday on the margins of the 79th World Health Assembly.
– CAJ News