In a statement in early 2022, the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus identified:

“ I want to make behavioural insights an essential part of how we promote and ensure better health for all.  As the global public health leader, WHO cannot achieve its ambitious goal of transforming global health and the health of more than 7 billion people without a clear understanding of people’s health-related behaviours.

We have the responsibility of creating systems and environments that are informed by behavioural science.“

In support of this statement, the WHO Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health has drafted a letter to the bureau of WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) ahead of their first meeting to begin the process of drafting and negotiating an international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The WHO TAG, of which HEARD’s Professor Gavin George is a member, calls for the explicit inclusion of behavioral and social sciences. The INB has the critical task ahead and the responsibility of building on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the lessons learned is that we must improve how we use the behavioral and social sciences if we are to achieve the desired health outcomes. Click here to read the letter