GENEVA: The World Well being Group (WHO) is proposing to scale back employees numbers and the size of its work because it slashes its funds by simply over one fifth as a result of affect of US funding cuts, in response to an inside memo seen by Reuters.
US President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the WHO upon taking workplace in January, saying the worldwide well being company had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and different worldwide well being crises. The US is by far the UN well being company’s greatest monetary backer, contributing round 18 per cent of its general funding.
“America’ announcement, mixed with latest reductions in official improvement help by some international locations to fund elevated defence spending, has made our state of affairs far more acute”, said the WHO memo, which was dated Mar 28 and signed by WHO’s Director-Normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The US withdrawal has exacerbated a funding disaster as a result of member states lowering their improvement spending. Confronted with an revenue hole of practically US$600 million this yr, the WHO has proposed to slash its funds for 2026-27 by 21 per cent from US$5.3 billion to US$4.2 billion, in response to the memo.
In February, the WHO’s government board had initially decreased the proposed funds for 2026-27 from US$5.3 billion to US$4.9 billion, in response to the be aware.
“Regardless of our greatest efforts, we are actually on the level the place we’ve got no alternative however to scale back the size of our work and workforce,” the memo stated.
The WHO will scale back jobs at senior management stage at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, although all ranges and areas can be affected, the memo added. It is going to resolve on find out how to prioritize its work and assets by the tip of April.
WHO paperwork present the UN company has over 1 / 4 of its 9,473 employees in Geneva.
An inside memo from Mar 10, which was additionally seen by Reuters, stated the World Well being Group had begun fixing priorities and introduced a one-year restrict on employees contracts.
The memo stated that employees have been working to safe extra funding from international locations, non-public donors and philanthropists.
