(MENAFN) Essential health services in low- and middle-income nations are facing major disruptions as external health assistance is expected to drop by 30% to 40% in 2025 compared with 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned on Monday.

In its latest guidance designed to assist governments in managing the crisis, the WHO noted that abrupt and significant funding reductions are limiting access to maternal care, vaccinations, disease monitoring, and emergency readiness by up to 70% in certain countries, according to survey results gathered this March.

The survey, conducted across 108 countries, revealed that more than 50 nations have experienced layoffs among healthcare workers and interruptions in training initiatives.

"Sudden and unplanned cuts to aid have hit many countries hard, costing lives and jeopardizing hard-won health gains," stated WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"But in the crisis lies an opportunity for countries to transition away from aid dependency towards sustainable self-reliance, based on domestic resources."

The WHO explained that the current reductions in funding have worsened long-standing challenges in health financing, including growing debt, inflation, economic instability, high personal healthcare expenses, systemic underfunding of budgets, and heavy reliance on external assistance.

The organization urged government leaders to prioritize health both politically and financially, "seeing health spending as not merely a cost to be contained, but an investment in social stability, human dignity, and economic resilience," even during times of economic or political crises.

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