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Public-private cooperation for pandemic preparedness (PANPREP)

What is the role of public-private cooperation in Norway’s approach to pandemic preparedness and response, at home and abroad?

About the project

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought attention to the importance of reliable public-private cooperation in ensuring national and global health security. According to Gro Harlem Brundtland, former director-general of the World Health Organization and former prime minister of Norway, to ensure global equitable access to a vaccine for Covid-19, “we need to embrace the unprecedented scale of partnership between governments, business, international organisations such as the UN and WHO, non-profits, and scientists and researchers.”

Though widely touted as both essential and innovative, public authorities' growing reliance on non-state actors, including private companies, creates significant challenges of oversight and introduces a new ethos and interests into global public health efforts.

Led by Katerini T. Storeng, the PANPREP project examines how such public-private collaboration operates in practice in Norway's pandemic preparedness and response, both domestically and through involvement in global initiatives like COVAX,CEPI and Gavi, the Vaccine alliance. The project's work packages focus on public-private cooperation within vaccine financing, disease surveillance technologies, procurement of medical commodities and emergency medical response, and the implications for public trust in the state's ability to deliver public health and societal security in the face of a major crisis like Covid-19.