Hit by the withdrawal of its biggest donor, the United States, the WHO trimmed its already smaller 2026-2027 budget from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion.
The slimmer budget plan was approved during the World Health Assembly, which serves as the WHO’s decision-making body.
How WHO funding works
However, the WHO became increasingly reliant on “voluntary contributions”, which only go towards outcomes specified by the donor.
And the organisation had long been over-reliant on voluntary funding from a few major donors.
In 2022, member states agreed to increase their assessed contributions to represent 50 percent of the WHO’s core budget by the 2030-2031 cycle at the latest -- giving the WHO more stable, flexible and predictable income streams.
At this year’s assembly, countries approved another 20 percent increase in membership fees, which should represent an additional $90 million in revenue per year.
“Your approval of the next increase in assessed contributions was a strong vote of confidence in your WHO at this critical time,“ the organisation’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday in closing the assembly.
“We have now secured 60 percent of our base budget for 2026-2027; a remarkable result in today’s financial climate,“ said Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional director.
Pledges
That included $80 million from Switzerland, $57 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, $13.5 million from Sweden and $6 million from Qatar.
United States
The United States was traditionally the WHO’s largest donor. Washington’s departure, and its refusal to pay its membership fees for 2024 and 2025, has left the WHO reeling financially.
However, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a video message in which he branded the organization as bloated and moribund, and urged other countries to “consider joining us” in creating new institutions instead.
Reorganisation
It is reducing its executive management team from 14 to seven due to the dramatic US funding cuts.
The WHO has not yet announced any large-scale layoffs, unlike other UN agencies.
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