The Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, on Monday said the organisation is facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than $500m.
Hence, it is taking a range of measures to curtail costs in travel, procurement, recruitment, early retirement and more.
Ghebreyesus made this known at the high-level welcome at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, with the theme, “One World for Health.”
The financial constraint in the WHO is not unconnected with President Donald Trump’s executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, citing its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises.
Trump criticised the global health body for failing to operate independently of what he called “inappropriate political influence” from its member states.
Trump also took issue with the financial burden on the US, the organization’s largest contributor, providing about 18 per cent of its total funding.
The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO member states and focuses on a specific health agenda.
While stating that the organisations have made many positive strides, he added that it is a salary gap.
“This week, I ask you to approve the next increase, to make another step towards securing the long-term financial sustainability and independence of your WHO.”
Already, the first increase has made a huge difference. If it had not happened, our current financial situation would be much worse – $300m worse.
“Even so, we are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than $500m. The secretariat has taken a range of measures to curtail costs in travel, procurement, recruitment, early retirement and more. These measures have helped to narrow the gap, but still, there is no alternative but to reduce the size of our workforce.
“We are doing this reduction carefully, to protect the quality of our work, and ensure that we are positioned to emerge from this crisis stronger, more empowered and more independent. As you know, we have been engaging in a major structural realignment, guided by an in-depth analysis of priorities, deliberate and conscious,” he emphasised.
The WHO boss noted that the prioritisation exercise has informed the development of a new streamlined structure for headquarters, which reduces the executive management team from 14 to seven, and the number of departments from 76 to 34.
“Some member states called the new structure ‘lean and mean’. I think it’s more focused and it could be more impactful as well.
“Last week I announced our new executive management team, and in the coming weeks, we will decide which directors will lead which departments.
“This was an extremely difficult decision for me – as it is for every manager in our organization who is having to decide who stays, and who goes,” he added.
Ghebreyesus thanked the outgoing executive management team, comprising Dr Mike Ryan, Dr Samira Asma, Dr Bruce Aylward, Dr Catharina Boehme, Dr Li Ailan and Dr Jérôme Salomon, for their dedication.
Explaining further, he said, “Let’s be clear: a reduced workforce means a reduced scope of work. The organisation simply cannot do everything Member States have asked it to do with the resources available.
“This week, you will consider a reduced programme budget of $4.2bn for the 2026-2027 biennium. This represents a 21 per cent reduction on the original proposed budget of $5.3bn.
“Assuming you approve the increase in assessed contributions, and thanks to the Investment Round, we are confident that we have already secured more than $2.6 billion, or 60 percent of the funding for the next biennium. That leaves an anticipated budget gap of more than $1.7bn. We know that in the current landscape, mobilizing that sum will be a challenge.”
