With US out, WHO director says it’s running on budget of a local hospital

With the abrupt withdrawal of the US, the World Health Organization is grappling with a brutal funding shortfall, leaving the United Nations health agency to slash top leadership and run global programs on a budget similar to that of a local hospital system. In remarks at a budget committee meeting Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus laid out the daunting budget numbers and announced a slimmed structure, cutting senior management from 14 to seven and the number of departments from 76 to 34. "The loss of US funding, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, mean we are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than US$ 500 million," Tedros said. President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to withdraw the US from the WHO, and the WHO immediately began slashing costs. The WHO's 2024–2025 biennial budget was about $6.8 billion, and the US has historically contributed about 18 percent of th ... Read full article.