Addressing the WHO Executive Board in Geneva earlier this week, Director‑General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that 2025 had been “one of the most difficult years” in the agency’s history, with reduced resources forcing workforce cuts and straining operations across multiple regions.
Tedros told ministers and diplomats that “significant cuts to our funding” had directly impacted the WHO’s ability to support countries in crisis. He said sudden reductions in bilateral aid had caused “huge disruptions to health systems and services in many countries,” especially low‑and middle‑income nations that rely heavily on external support to maintain basic healthcare.
While the WHO had managed to sustain lifesaving interventions, the funding crisis had exposed deeper vulnerabilities in the global health architecture, Tedros said, warning that many countries were struggling to keep essential services running.
The WHO Executive Board is meeting under intense global pressure, with an agenda that spans pandemic preparedness, immunisation, antimicrobial resistance, mental health, and health emergencies in conflict settings. Members are also reviewing governance reform, budget pressures and the formal notifications of withdrawal from the WHO by the United States and Argentina.
The outcomes from this week’s session will be forwarded to the World Health Assembly in May, shaping the agency’s priorities at a time when international cooperation and predictable financing are under threat.
Tedros said the WHO’s financial challenges mirrored a broader retreat from global health financing, a trend that is forcing countries to make difficult decisions over which services to prioritise.
“In response to funding cuts, WHO is supporting many countries to sustain essential health services, and to transition away from aid dependency towards self‑reliance,” he said. Domestic resource mobilisation, including higher taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks, was becoming increasingly important. Yet the scale of unmet need remains enormous.
–ChannelAfrica–
