HQ Team
May 21, 2025: Long-standing allies and new contributors have stepped up funding to the cash-strapped World Health Organization with a total of $170 million.
The WHO members approved an increase in Assessed Contributions, adding a separate $90 million a year of income, “and marking another important step on the WHO’s journey towards sustainable financing,” according to a statement.
Assessed contributions are the amounts each of the Members and Associate Members must pay to WHO on an annual basis. The assessment scale is calculated by the United Nations based mainly on the country’s GDP and is adjusted for WHO membership.
These contributions have declined as an overall percentage of the Programme Budget and have, for several years, accounted for less than 20% of the Organization’s financing. The balance is mobilised through voluntary contributions.
Budget cut by 20%
The Geneva-based UN agency has revised down its budget to $4.2 billion for 2026-2027, or a cut of 20% to $2.1 billion a year.
Tedros had earlier said that $2.1 billion a year was an amount that was being spent on defence equipment worldwide every eight hours.
The US had contributed around 20% of the WHO’s budget and may withdraw from the global health agency from the beginning of 2026.
The WHO has been forced to cut top management jobs, from 14 to seven senior positions, and slash the number of internal departments from 76 to 34.
According to internal plans, the number of employees worldwide is set to drop by 20% from around 9,500. The US has still to pay the WHO around $130 million for 2025. However, it is unlikely the money will materialise.
Switzerland gives $40 million
During the WHO’s Investment Round at the ongoing World Health Assembly in Geneva, governments and philanthropic partners made “significant” contributions.
The Investment Round is raising funds for WHO’s strategy for global health, the Fourteenth General Programme of Work, which can save an additional 40 million lives over the next four years, according to the statement.
The WHO list of contributors showed that the event host, Switzerland, donated $40 million, Novo Nordisk Foundation $57 million, Angola $8 million,, Sweden $13.5 million, Qatar $6 million and Fondation Botnar $ 9.6 million.
Other partners, such as Laerdal Global Health, contributed $12.5 million, and Nippon Foundation, Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman, gave $ 9.2 million.
‘Extend life-saving work’
The list does not include an earlier $500 million pledge from China since the WHO said calculations are ongoing.
“In a challenging climate for global health, these funds will help us to preserve and extend our life-saving work,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “They show that multilateralism is alive and well.”
The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation announced an additional $13 million and committed to further increases in funding.
Flexible contribution
“Among the announcements, at least $170 million is for the Investment Round, meaning that the funding supports WHO’s base budget from 2025–2028,” according to the statement.
Eight of the donors included a flexible contribution to WHO, the most valuable sort of funding, and four were first-time donors.
Through the One World Movement, almost 8000 people from across the world have signed on as ‘Member Citizens’, contributing almost $600,000 in donations, many monthly – “a powerful expression of global solidarity and an affirmation that every voice counts.”
