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Huge budget gap, WHO begins staff restructuring after US funding cut
2025-04-22 21:54:55 / BOTA
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, acknowledged on Tuesday that funding cuts from the US have left the UN agency with a huge budget gap, forcing it to scale back operations and lay off staff.
"The sudden drop in income has left us with a huge wage gap and no choice but to reduce the size of work and the workforce," Ghebreyesus told member states, according to a transcript of his opening speech.
The United Nations health agency is preparing for the planned full withdrawal of the United States, traditionally its largest donor, in January next year.
Meanwhile, the administration of US President Donald Trump has also refused to pay agreed membership dues, called assessed contributions, for 2024 and 2025, while freezing almost all US foreign aid, including massive aid to health projects around the world.
A number of other countries have also reduced their spending on foreign aid.
Faced with this situation, the WHO has decided to form a new organizational structure, which Tedros presented to staff and member states on Tuesday.
“The US refusal to pay the assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, combined with reductions in official development assistance from several other countries, means that we are facing a gap in salaries for the 2026–27 biennium of $560 to $650 million,” he acknowledged.
The lower end of this spectrum “represents about 25 percent of current staff costs,” he said, emphasizing, however, that “this does not necessarily mean a 25 percent reduction in the number of positions.”
He did not say how many jobs would be lost, but stressed that the biggest impact is expected to be felt at the organization's headquarters in Geneva, and added that " we are starting with reductions in senior management."
"We are reducing the senior leadership team at headquarters from 12 to 7, and the number of departments will be reduced by more than half, from 76 to 34," Tedros said.
"These are very painful decisions for all of us." /REL
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