The Daily Populous Monday March 31st, 2025 night edition
Authored by swissinfo.ch and submitted by BezugssystemCH1903

WHO must cut budget by 20% after US withdrawal

WHO must cut budget by 20 per cent after US withdrawal Keystone-SDA

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The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed cutting its budget by a fifth. This comes after its largest contributor, the US, decided to withdraw. The organisation must now reduce its tasks and staff, it said.

Keystone-SDA Other language: 1 Deutsch de WHO muss nach US-Rückzug Budget um 20 Prozent kürzen Original Read more: WHO muss nach US-Rückzug Budget um 20 Prozent kürzen

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The WHO is facing a funding gap of almost $600 million (CHF530 million) in 2025 and has “no choice” but to start making cuts, the institution’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in an internal email obtained by the French news agency AFP. The letter was sent to employees of the UN health agency on Friday.

After moving into the White House in January, US President Donald Trump decided to freeze almost all US foreign aid, including for important programmes to improve health around the world.

+ Cuts threaten health of 13 million refugees, says UN

Trump justified his decision to withdraw his country from the WHO in January with the discrepancy between the financial contributions of the US and China and accused the organisation of “ripping off” his country.

The US was by far the largest contributor to the WHO’s budget: in the last two-year budget cycle for 2022 to 2023, it contributed 16.3% of the organisation’s total budget of $7.89 billion. The majority of US funding came from voluntary contributions for specific projects and not from a fixed contribution.

+ Is Geneva prepared for Trump’s – and others’ – cuts to foreign aid?

Ghebreyesus noted that the WHO was already struggling with financial constraints before the US withdrawal began and had started working on measures to increase its efficiency more than nine months ago. “Although we have achieved significant cost savings, the current economic and geopolitical conditions make the mobilisation of resources particularly difficult,” he wrote.

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Munzo101 on March 30th, 2025 at 18:18 UTC »

Keep in mind that nearly 10% of WHOs funding still comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Source: https://www.who.int/about/funding/invest-in-who/investment-case-2.0/current-state

w1n5t0nM1k3y on March 30th, 2025 at 17:29 UTC »

The world could save a lot of money by ignoring US drug patents.

BezugssystemCH1903 on March 30th, 2025 at 17:07 UTC »

Article:

> The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed cutting its budget by a fifth. This comes after its largest contributor, the US, decided to withdraw. The organisation must now reduce its tasks and staff, it said.

> The WHO is facing a funding gap of almost $600 million (CHF530 million) in 2025 and has “no choice” but to start making cuts, the institution’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in an internal email obtained by the French news agency AFP. The letter was sent to employees of the UN health agency on Friday.

> After moving into the White House in January, US President Donald Trump decided to freeze almost all US foreign aid, including for important programmes to improve health around the world.

> Trump justified his decision to withdraw his country from the WHO in January with the discrepancy between the financial contributions of the US and China and accused the organisation of “ripping off” his country.

> The US was by far the largest contributor to the WHO’s budget: in the last two-year budget cycle for 2022 to 2023, it contributed 16.3% of the organisation’s total budget of $7.89 billion. The majority of US funding came from voluntary contributions for specific projects and not from a fixed contribution.

> Ghebreyesus noted that the WHO was already struggling with financial constraints before the US withdrawal began and had started working on measures to increase its efficiency more than nine months ago. “Although we have achieved significant cost savings, the current economic and geopolitical conditions make the mobilisation of resources particularly difficult,” he wrote.