By Muhammad Amaan
World Health Organization (WHO) Member States have approved a 20 per cent increase in assessed contributions as they endorsed the organisation’s 2026 to 2027 budget of $4.2billion.
In a statement, the WHO said that the 20 per cent increase comes as governments are facing financial constraints and economic headwinds and demonstrates Member States’ fundamental support for global health solidarity and the critical role of WHO.
Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, and other senior leaders, thanked member states for their support and partnership.
Dr Ghebreyesus noted that their profound vote of confidence in WHO’s mission and their commitment to health security and resilience worldwide.
“Insufficient levels of predictable funding of WHO has hindered its ability to carry out long term projects and support its global operations to promote health for all.
“In addition, over reliance on funding from a small set of traditional donors, were identified as major organisational challenges as part of WHO’s Transformation initiative that launched in 2017,” he said.
According to him, in 2022, WHO member states agreed an historic increase in their assessed contributions by gradually increasing their membership dues to represent 50 per cent of WHO’s core budget by the 2030 to the 2031 cycle, at the latest.
Dr Ghebreyesus said that in the 2020 to 2021 biennium, assessed contributions represented only 16 per cent of the approved programme budget.
“While this work began years ago, due to recent changes in the global financial landscape, sustainable financing is more important than ever before.
“WHO’s originally approved 2026 to 27 programme budget was downsize 22 per cent from 5.3 billion dollars to 4.2 billion dollars due to financial constraints.
“Today’s approval of WHO’s base programme budget of $4.2 billion for 2026 to 2027 is the first to be fully developed based on the organisation’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work, 2025 to 2028 (GPW 14), its global health strategy for the next four years,” the statement reads.
