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The World Well being Group chief stated Tuesday that operations and jobs can be slashed as US funding cuts had left the UN company with a price range gap of a number of hundred million {dollars}.
“The sudden drop in income has left us with a large salary gap and no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus advised member states, in response to a transcript of his remarks.
The United Nations well being company has been bracing for President Donald Trump’s deliberate full withdrawal of america—by far its largest donor—subsequent January.
The US gave WHO $1.3 billion for its 2022-2023 price range, primarily by way of voluntary contributions for particular tasks slightly than fastened membership charges.
However Washington by no means paid its 2024 dues, and isn’t anticipated to pay its 2025 dues.
This has left the WHO making ready a brand new construction, which Tedros offered to employees and member states on Tuesday.
“The refusal of the US to pay its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, means we are facing a salary gap for the 2026-27 biennium of between $560 and $650 million,” he stated.
The decrease finish of that spectrum “represents about 25 percent of staff costs” at the moment, he stated, stressing although that “that doesn’t necessarily mean a 25-percent cut to the number of positions”.
He didn’t say what number of jobs can be misplaced on the WHO, which make use of greater than 8,000 individuals around the globe.
‘Very painful’
However he acknowledged that “we will be saying goodbye to a significant number of colleagues” and vowed to take action “humanely”.
Tedros insisted that probably the most important influence would seemingly be felt on the group’s headquarters in Geneva. “We are starting with reductions in senior management,” he stated.
“We are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from 12 to seven, and the number of departments will be reduced by (more than) half, from 76 to 34,” Tedros stated.
WHO’s regional workplaces would in the meantime be affected “to varying degrees”, he stated, including that some nation workplaces in wealthier international locations would seemingly be closed.
“These are very painful decisions for all of us,” Tedros stated.
The WHO chief insisted the scenario may have been worse.
WHO member states agreed in 2022 to considerably enhance membership charges and scale back the portion of WHO’s price range lined by much less dependable and sometimes earmarked voluntary contributions.
“Without the increase, assessed contributions for the current biennium would have been $746 million,” he stated, including that as an alternative, WHO expects to obtain $1.07 billion in membership charges for 2026-27, “even without the US contribution”.
Nonetheless, WHO wanted to scale back its actions and recentre on its core capabilities, he stated, whilst he acknowledged that “many countries need our support now more than ever”.
The US administration’s choice to just about dismantle the US international assist arm, USAID, and freeze almost all help, together with to well being tasks worldwide, had made “very severe” impacts in growing international locations particularly, Tedros stated.
However WHO, he stated, would now have to concentrate on serving to international locations “transition away from aid dependency to greater self-reliance”, he stated.
© 2025 AFP
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