WHO must cut budget by fifth after US pullout: E-mail
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The WHO is facing an income gap of nearly US$600 million (S$804.57 million) in 2025 and has “no choice” but to start making cutbacks.
PHOTO: AFP
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GENEVA - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has proposed slashing a fifth of its budget following the US decision to withdraw, and must now reduce its reach and workforce, its chief said in an internal e-mail seen by AFP on March 29.
The WHO is facing an income gap of nearly US$600 million (S$804.57 million) in 2025 and has “no choice” but to start making cutbacks, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the message sent on March 28 to the United Nations health agency’s staff.
Besides announcing the US pullout from the WHO
The US was by far the WHO’s biggest donor.
“Dramatic cuts to official development assistance by the United States of America and others are causing massive disruption to countries, non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies, including WHO,” Dr Tedros said in his e-mail.
He said that even before Mr Trump triggered the one-year process of withdrawing from the WHO, the organisation was already facing financial constraints.
“The United States’ announcement, combined with recent reductions in official development assistance by some countries to fund increased defence spending, has made our situation much more acute,” said Dr Tedros.
“While we have achieved substantial cost savings, the prevailing economic and geopolitical conditions have made resource mobilisation particularly difficult.
WHO budget cut
The WHO’s executive board in February reduced the proposed budget for 2026-2027 from US$5.3 billion to US$4.9 billion.
“Since then, the outlook for development assistance has deteriorated, not only for WHO, but for the whole international health ecosystem,” said Dr Tedros.
“We have, therefore, proposed to member states a further reduced budget of US$4.2 billion – a 21 per cent reduction from the original proposed budget.”
In the body’s last two-year budget cycle, for 2022-23, the US pitched in US$1.3 billion, representing 16.3 per cent of the WHO’s then US$7.89 billion budget.
Most of the US funding was through voluntary contributions for specific earmarked projects, rather than fixed membership fees.
“Despite our best efforts, we are now at the point where we have no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce,” said Dr Tedros.
“This reduction will begin at headquarters, starting with senior leadership, but will affect all levels and regions,” he told staff.
Earlier in March, Dr Tedros asked Washington to reconsider its sharp cuts to global health funding, warning that the sudden halt threatened millions of lives.
He said disruptions to global HIV programmes alone could lead to “more than 10 million additional cases of HIV and three million HIV-related deaths”.
The WHO is conducting a prioritisation exercise, to be completed by the end of April, to focus its efforts on core functions.
Since taking office in 2017, Dr Tedros has made it his mission to reform the organisation’s finances and put them on a more secure and predictable footing.
To overcome the risk of relying on a handful of traditional major nation-state donors, the WHO now also seeks philanthropy and public donations. AFP
