US Funding Cuts Created Major Budget Gap - WHO

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that operations and jobs would be slashed as US funding cuts had left the UN agency with a huge budget gap.
"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 told member states.
The United Nations health agency has been bracing itself for US President Donald Trump's planned full withdrawal of the United States - by far its largest donor - in January.
"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 2026-2027 biennium of between $560 million and $650 million," he said.
Tedros insisted that the most significant impact would likely be felt at the organization's headquarters in Geneva. "We are starting with reductions in senior management," he said.
"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," he noted.
Nonetheless, the WHO needed to reduce its activities and re-center on its core functions, he said, even as he acknowledged that "many countries need our support now more than ever".
The US administration's decision to virtually dismantle the US foreign aid arm, USAid, and freeze nearly all assistance, including to health projects worldwide, had a "very severe" impact on developing countries, especially, Tedros said.

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