The Parliamentarians for Peace (P4P) compose a transnational and transpartisan network of fifteen members of national parliaments committed to improving peace governance. Created and curated by the Open Diplomacy Institute, this program is powered by the Normandy World Peace Forum.
The 2021 P4P are currently working on the next Peace Policy Platform. Based on principles of international cooperation agreed upon across national and political boundaries, this Platform will refer to solutions addressing the most pressing international challenges.
On April 28th, the Open Diplomacy Institute gathered the fifteen Parliamentarians for Peace for a first working session dedicated to the lessons drawn from the pandemic regarding global cooperation on health issues.
First, the Parliamentarians met with Dr Naoko Yamamoto, Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization (WHO). Together, they commended the principles of the One Health Approach of the WHO, recalling how the health of humans, animals and the planet are closely linked together. “COVID-19 is a global crisis that requires international cooperation. Many leaders have called for solidarity. We need to build on this momentum” continued Dr Yamamoto.
Then, the Parliamentarians auditioned Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank who stressed the idea that “no single institution or country can overcome the pandemic by itself”. Dr Pate called for a multi-actor global response to build “a more resilient health system which would include universal health coverage, ensuring the efficient, effective and equitable delivery of quality health services ready to deal with current and inevitable future threats”
The Parliamentarians for Peace agreed to sustain efforts for multilateral cooperation to reinforce political, economic and scientific, global capabilities to tackle such a crisis.
“The recovery process must be a reflection of multilateralism in its best form” concluded Jordanian Senator Alia Hatoug-Bouran, former Jordan Ambassador to the US and the EU, as the P4P prepared their Peace Policy Platform to be presented at the 4th Normandy for Peace Forum in 2021.