With the US pulling back funding, the World Health Organisation has found itself facing a budget gap and income reduction. It is left with no option but to scale down operations and reduce headcount.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, has reportedly conveyed that the organisation has been working out an emergency plan to deal with the ‘no funding from the US’ situation. It is pertinent to mention here that the largest donation to WHO used to come from the US and this is likely to be stopped altogether in a year’s time. That means WHO will need to somehow come up with ways to save huge amounts if it has to deal with a budget gap for 2025, which is expected to be around $600 million as per Health Policy Watch.
As part of the cost-cutting measures, instead of 10, there is likely to be only about five WHO programme divisions in the future, with the number of directors also being reduced from 80 to about 30.
Some departments may also be moved from Geneva to regional offices or satellite offices in other locations in Europe to bring down expenses and cut costs. Presently there are at least 2,500 employees at the Geneva headquarters. Some of them will have to reassigned roles or shifted to regional offices, while many may have to be let go.
