WHO cut its budget after the US withdrew funding

The World Health Organisation, WHO, tried to fix its money problems at its yearly meeting which ended on Tuesday. But it still doesn’t have enough money to reach its already reduced target.

The WHO lost its biggest donor when the United States pulled out. Because of this, the WHO cut its 2026-2027 budget from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion.

The UN health agency’s program budget for 2024-2025 was $6.8 billion.

The smaller budget plan was approved during the World Health Assembly. This serves as the WHO’s decision-making body.

But the WHO still needs about $1.7 billion more to cover all its costs.

How WHO funding works
WHO budgets run in two-year cycles.

The agency was founded in 1948. At first, it got all its money through “assessed contributions.” These are membership fees that countries pay based on their wealth and population size.

However, the WHO became more and more dependent on “voluntary contributions.” This money only goes toward specific projects chosen by the donor.

By the 2020-2021 cycle, assessed contributions made up only 16 percent of the approved program budget.

The organisation had long been too dependent on voluntary funding from a few major donors.

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In 2022, member countries agreed to increase their membership fees. The goal was to make assessed contributions represent 50 percent of the WHO’s core budget by the 2030-2031 cycle at the latest. This would give the WHO more stable, flexible and predictable income.

They increased membership fees by 20 percent as part of the 2024-2025 budget.

At this year’s meeting, countries approved another 20 percent increase in membership fees. This should bring in an additional $90 million in revenue per year.

They also approved the WHO’s 2026-2027 budget of $4.2 billion.

“Your approval of the next increase in assessed contributions was a strong vote of confidence in your WHO at this critical time,” the organization’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday when closing the meeting.

Most of that money is already guaranteed.

“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.