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Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to halve its Geneva headquarters' divisions from 10 to 5 and reduce directors from nearly 80 to about 30, aiming to address a $600 million budget shortfall for 2025. This restructuring responds to the U.S. withdrawal and other funding cuts, which have led to a projected $1.9 billion deficit for 2026–2027. The plan includes relocating certain departments to regional offices to cut costs and may reduce Geneva staff by over 40%, from 2,600 to around 1,400–1,500 employees.
Quotes
“But even these dramatic steps, informed observers say, will not be enough to generate the savings required to cover an expected $600 million budget deficit for 2025, along with a projected $1.9 billion gap for the upcoming budget biennium of 2026-2027 triggered by the United States’ withdrawal from the organisation in January.”
“As of July 2024 there were nearly 80 directors (D1,D2) at WHO Headquarters – more than the number of departments.”Health Policy Watch
“The new reorganisation, while seemingly radical, would in fact bring the agency’s core functions back to a template similar to the one that was left by WHO’s previous Director General Dr Margaret Chan, when she finished her 10-year tenure as head of the agency in July 2017.”
Some of these cost-cutting measures will help streamline WHO's bloated bureaucracy, but sadly some essential functions will likely be eliminated.
ReplyDeleteAlong with drastic cuts in US CDC, NIH, USAID, GFATM, GAVI, etc. such cuts are likely to impact advances in global health negatively. Kul
Perhaps WHO's embrace of Traditional Chinese Medicine using animal parts, often of endangered species, might be an area where cost-cutting might be appropriate.
ReplyDeleteHaving spent a year at WHO HQ in 1996/97 helping Dr. Fabrizio Bassani set up a new Emergency & Humanitarian Division ,I am sorry to learn of the coming cutbacks in their structures and programmes and hope that this one will be spared as the world is witnessing an increase in civil and inter-country conflicts, as well as the many natural disasters due to climate change. COVID showed us that a robust WHO response is definitely needed in similar situations and such actions are better organized from a central location.
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