At the May 2023 Leaders’ Summit, the former Quad Vaccine Partnership evolved into a more comprehensive Health Security Partnership to promote coordination and collaboration between Quad partners in the Indo-Pacific to strengthen regional and global health security to support health workforce development, pandemic preparedness and response, disease surveillance, and digital health. It builds on the successful efforts undertaken to provide safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, critical medicines, and healthcare equipment to the Indo-Pacific countries during the pandemic.
COVID-19 Vaccines to the Indo-Pacific
Under the Quad Vaccine Partnership, access to COVID-19 vaccines was significantly improved in the Indo-Pacific, including through
support for vaccine manufacturing, technical assistance to medical and regulatory agencies, and supply of vaccines, consumables, and cold-chain infrastructure, either directly or through multilateral channels. In 2021 and 2022, Quad partners stepped up to help meet the region’s most pressing need, contributing US$ 5.6 billion to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment for vaccine supply to low- and middle-income countries; delivering more than 400 million safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine doses to Indo-Pacific countries and almost 800 million doses globally, bilaterally and in partnership with COVAX; funding vaccine manufacturing expansion in the region; and providing extensive ‘last mile’ delivery support to national vaccination programmes.
Regional Cooperation
Health experts from Quad countries are regularly interacting with Indo-Pacific countries to deepen health security cooperation in the region and share best practice. Quad partners are implementing a package of key initiatives centred on building the capability of Indo-Pacific countries to respond to disease outbreaks. These initiatives focus on health workforce development, enhancement of disease surveillance capabilities, and improvement of electronic health information systems.
Digital health
Digital health initiatives support national and collaborative cross-border surveillance by facilitating the collection and analysis of data required for informed decision-making. A Quad workshop on Digital Health was organized by India with the participation of health officials from 13 Indo-Pacific countries on 11 December 2023. India’s digital health platforms on disease surveillance, training, telemedicine, and vaccination were showcased.
Intra-Quad Cooperation
Quad partners have committed to consult and coordinate more closely, as well as identifying ways to collaborate on broader health security issues. On 14 November 2023, Australia hosted the inaugural meeting of the Quad Senior Health Leaders’ Forum, enabling the more efficient exchange of information between chief health officers and public health experts. Quad Pandemic Preparedness Exercises have been conducted to exchange best practices and assessments in response to future public health emergencies in the Indo-Pacific region. The 2nd Quad Pandemic Tabletop Exercise, fostering collaboration on disease surveillance through the 'One Health' approach, was conducted virtually on 14 December 2023 and hosted by India.
