Background: We need a new approach. An approach that harnesses the opportunity of a new technological reality to share data for the common good, that enables a broader engagement across professional disciplines and with other stakeholders; it must build trust and support a new political understanding and commitment to work together to manage pandemic and epidemic risks. We need the capability to analyse and interpret data so that they become useful information, and we need to understand the context of that information to turn it into the intelligence that policy- and decision-makers need for action. Moreover, we must do this equitably, bringing these capabilities to all countries and communities of the world in a collaborative way so that we all benefit. The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence (the WHO Hub) will be the catalyst for creating this new approach.