GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization launched its annual appeal for funding to respond to health emergencies on Thursday, just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States – the health agency’s biggest donor – calls into question its long-term finances.
The WHO is seeking $1.5 billion to help more than 300 million people living in 42 emergency zones, from Gaza to Afghanistan.
“Without adequate and sustainable funding, we face the impossible task of deciding who gets care and who doesn’t,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, decrying the widening gap between needs and available resources.
The United States has historically been a major contributor to both the WHO’s emergency appeal and its broader budget, which is set at $6.8 billion for 2024-2025. In the current two-year period, the United States provided about 34% of the funds available for health emergencies, and in the past its contribution was as high as 50%, according to WHO data. It also contributes about a fifth of WHO’s total funding.
But that funding could be in jeopardy when Trump takes office for his second term next week. In his first term in the White House, he decided to cut funding to the WHO and withdraw the US from the agency after criticizing it for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its closeness to China.
Sources close to the transition team have indicated that he may take similar steps again in his second term.
Asked by Reuters late last month whether the US would leave the WHO, a source familiar with the transition team’s discussions said: “The same WHO we left in the first administration? It seems like we couldn’t care less what they have to say.”
Documents published online by the World Health Organization this week ahead of a meeting of its executive board in early February warn of the risks of losing any of its major donors.
The agency is partially financed by mandatory fees from member states, along with voluntary contributions and a round of investments. Just five donors, again led by the United States, account for the vast majority of its voluntary funding, the WHO document said – up to two-thirds of the budget for some programs.
