GENEVA (AN) — With two-fifths of its financing still in doubt, the World Health Organization plans to further slash its budget by $700 million.
The U.N. health agency said on Friday it will ask its governing body for a budget of slightly more than $4.2 billion, down from an earlier $4.9 billion plan, and seek a 20% increase in its 194 member nations' annual fees.
"The aim is to focus on WHO’s core work and increase efficiency," the agency said ahead of the World Health Assembly's meeting in Geneva to consider dozens of proposals over nine days starting next Monday.
The budget moves include what Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director-general, calls a "major structural realignment" due to severe cost-cutting measures brought on by its harsh new economic reality.
"To be blunt, we cannot do everything," he told a budget committee meeting where he said he was reducing his management team by half.
The fallout comes in the wake of the Trump administration's announcement that the United States will withdraw from WHO and cut funding. The U.S. provided WHO with $1.3 billion for its 2022-2023 budget, but did not pay its 2024 dues and is not expected to pay its 2025 dues.
The United Nations as a whole faces a severe liquidity crisis due to member nations falling into arrears, the U.S. withdrawal of foreign aid and refusal to pay its assessed U.N. fees, and other nations' aid cuts.
"The loss of U.S. funding, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, mean we are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than $500 million," Tedros said.
After the board approved a $4.9 billion budget instead of a $5.3 billion proposal, Tedros' management team "thought that would still be significantly high for the current reality," he told the budget committee.
"That’s why we revised it to $4.2 billion," he said, adding that just $2.6 billion, or 60% has been secured – and the other 40% remains in doubt. "That leaves an anticipated budget gap of more than $1.7 billion."
The payroll deficit could force a reduction of more 40% of WHO's 2,600 headquarters staff. All but four members of WHO's senior leadership team will leave their positions in June, as Tedros streamlines headquarters divisions from 10 to four and cuts roughly half the number of departments.
"The new team has been chosen after very careful consideration, and to ensure gender balance and geographical representation," Tedros said.
"This was, as you can imagine, an extremely difficult and painful decision for me," he added, "as it is for every manager in our organization who is having to decide who stays, and who goes."
