The WHO will lack approximately 600 million dollars – around 6 billion kronor – for the 2025 budget, according to the WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the email. He thus states that the organization has "no other choice" but to both lay off staff and reduce various health initiatives.
The USA was previously, by a wide margin, the largest contributor to the WHO, which was stopped by the USA's President Donald Trump. At the same time, the USA has in principle frozen bilateral aid through the Trump administration's decision to almost completely shut down the aid agency USAID.
The WHO chief specifically mentions the withdrawn US support as a reason, but adds that several countries are reprioritizing economic efforts towards military buildup:
"We have already previously managed to implement significant savings, but under current economic and geopolitical circumstances, it has definitely become more difficult to access resources."
The WHO's board recently decided to reduce the budget for the period 2026–2027 from 5.3 billion dollars to 4.9 billion.
In the internal message, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that support for international health initiatives through the WHO and other organizations has decreased even more since then.
Therefore, he has proposed to the WHO member countries that the budget must be reduced by an additional 21 percent.
"The cuts will begin at headquarters, and within the higher leadership – but it will affect all levels and all regions."
The content of the email has not been confirmed by the WHO.
