Human Rights Accountability in Global Health Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: The Case of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promotes multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) to achieve sustainable development, including global health-related goals. MSPs typically involve three or more types of actors, including states, corporations, philanthropic organizations, civil society, and multilateral institutions. While MSPs often operate in sectors that are crucial for the realization of health-related rights, they are seldom analyzed through a human rights lens. This paper will advance knowledge in this field through an exploration of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), launched in 2020. In doing so, the paper sheds light on the direct accountability of MSPs to rights holders, as well as the state obligations to respect and protect human rights in the context of MSPs. The paper outlines a human rights accountability framework to investigate the ACT-A’s accountability structure. The analysis confirms three systemic accountability problems: diffused responsibility in terms of the applicable normative and legal frameworks; limited answerability to rights holders; and weak enforceability in terms of remedies. This, in turn, limits the possibility of health rights accountability, including review, monitoring, and remedial action. The conclusions highlight three solutions: that MSPs themselves should at least have the duty to respect human rights, as do other corporate entities; that an independent, people-centered mechanism to hold MSPs accountable should be established; and that multilateral governance solutions, including seats at the table for less powerful actors, should be prioritized over multi-stakeholder approaches.