logo
World Health Organization looks ahead to life without the US

World Health Organization looks ahead to life without the US

Arab News18-05-2025

LONDON/GENEVA: Hundreds of officials from the World Health Organization will join donors and diplomats in Geneva from Monday with one question dominating their thoughts — how to cope with crises from mpox to cholera without their main funder, the United States.
The annual assembly, with its week of sessions, votes and policy decisions, usually showcases the scale of the UN agency set up to tackle disease outbreaks, approve vaccines and support health systems worldwide.
This year — since US President Donald Trump started the year-long process to leave the WHO with an executive order on his first day in office in January — the main theme is scaling down.
'Our goal is to focus on the high-value stuff,' Daniel Thornton, the WHO's director of coordinated resource mobilization, told Reuters.
Just what that 'high-value stuff' will be is up for discussion. Health officials have said the WHO's work in providing guidelines for countries on new vaccines and treatments for conditions from obesity to HIV will remain a priority.
One WHO slideshow for the event, shared with donors and seen by Reuters, suggested work on approving new medicines and responding to outbreaks would be protected, while training programs and offices in wealthier countries could be closed.
The United States had provided around 18 percent of the WHO's funding. 'We've got to make do with what we have,' said one Western diplomat who asked not to be named.
Staff have been getting ready — cutting managers and budgets — ever since Trump's January announcement in a rush of directives and aid cuts that have disrupted a string of multilateral pacts and initiatives.
The year-long delay, mandated under US law, means the US is still a WHO member — its flag still flies outside the Geneva HQ — until its official departure date on January 21, 2026.
Trump — who accused the WHO of mishandling COVID, which it denies — muddied the waters days after his statement by saying he might consider rejoining the agency if its staff 'clean it up.'
But global health envoys say there has since been little sign of a change of heart. So the WHO is planning for life with a $600 million hole in the budget for this year and cuts of 21 percent over the next two-year period.
CHINA TAKES LEAD
As the United States prepares to exit, China is set to become the biggest provider of state fees — one of the WHO's main streams of funding alongside donations.
China's contribution will rise from just over 15 percent to 20 percent of the total state fee pot under an overhaul of the funding system agreed in 2022.
'We have to adapt ourselves to multilateral organizations without the Americans. Life goes on,' Chen Xu, China's ambassador to Geneva, told reporters last month.
Others have suggested this might be a time for an even broader overhaul, rather than continuity under a reshuffled hierarchy of backers.
'Does WHO need all its committees? Does it need to be publishing thousands of publications each year?' said Anil Soni, chief executive of the WHO Foundation, an independent fund-raising body for the agency.
He said the changes had prompted a re-examination of the agency's operations, including whether it should be focussed on details like purchasing petrol during emergencies.
There was also the urgent need to make sure key projects do not collapse during the immediate cash crisis. That meant going to donors with particular interests in those areas, including pharmaceutical companies and philanthropic groups, Soni said.
The ELMA Foundation, which focuses on children's health in Africa with offices in the US, South Africa and Uganda, has already recently stepped in with $2 million for the Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network known as Gremlin — more than 700 labs which track infectious disease threats, he added.
Other business at the assembly includes the rubber-stamping a historic agreement on how to handle future pandemics and drumming up more cash from donors at an investment round.
But the focus will remain on funding under the new world order. In the run up to the event, a WHO manager sent an email to staff asking them to volunteer, without extra pay, as ushers.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Gaza's Al-Amal hospital ‘virtually out of service': WHO
Gaza's Al-Amal hospital ‘virtually out of service': WHO

Arab News

time2 days ago

  • Arab News

Gaza's Al-Amal hospital ‘virtually out of service': WHO

GENEVA: The Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza, one of the few still operating in the Palestinian territory, is now 'virtually out of service' due to intense military activity, the head of the WHO said Monday. 'Access to the hospital is obstructed, preventing new patients from reaching care, and leading to more preventable deaths,' the World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X. Tedros said two emergency medical teams — one local, the other international — 'are still doing their best to serve the remaining patients with the limited medical supplies left on the premises.' 'With the closure of Al-Amal, Nasser Medical Complex is now the only remaining hospital with an intensive care unit in Khan Younis,' he said. The WHO said June 5 that Al-Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals were unable to fully treat the wounded that continue to pour in because of serious shortages of medicines and medical supplies after two months of total blockade. Israeli authorities have recently allowed in some humanitarian aid, but way less than what is needed. Nearly 20 months of relentless war, triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, has created one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world, with civilians exhausted by bombardments, forced displacement and hunger.

British surgeon says only people she saw in Gaza with guns were Israeli troops
British surgeon says only people she saw in Gaza with guns were Israeli troops

Arab News

time2 days ago

  • Arab News

British surgeon says only people she saw in Gaza with guns were Israeli troops

LONDON: A British surgeon who worked in Gaza has said she never saw anyone in the Palestinian enclave with weapons except Israeli soldiers. Dr. Victoria Rose told Sky News that there had been a 'real escalation in the bombing campaign' in Gaza that had left the population 'on their knees.' Hospitals, despite being protected under international law, have frequently been targeted by Israel since the war began in October 2023. The Israel Defense Forces claim that hospitals are often used as bases by Hamas, but the National Health Service plastic surgeon said she had seen no evidence that this is the case. Rose told the 'Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips' program: 'I've never treated or seen anyone — in any of the hospitals that I've worked in — in military uniform or with a weapon. The only people I've ever seen in Gaza with military uniforms and weapons are the IDF.' She said the toll that the war is taking on medics in Gaza is catastrophic, adding: 'Lots of my Palestinian colleagues were telling me that they'd rather die than carry on with this war.' The public health situation in Gaza has been worsened by the ongoing food crisis in the enclave, with vital aid being blocked from entering by the Israeli military for several months. Rose said malnutrition is a severe problem in Gaza, especially among children. When she was in the enclave, 'infection rates were soaring,' she added. 'We were seeing a lot of avoidable deaths, a lot of small children dying from sepsis that would've been prevented if they'd been in in the Western world.'

WHO urges ‘urgent protection' of key Gaza hospitals
WHO urges ‘urgent protection' of key Gaza hospitals

Arab News

time6 days ago

  • Arab News

WHO urges ‘urgent protection' of key Gaza hospitals

GENEVA: The World Health Organization on Thursday called for the 'urgent protection' of two of the last hospitals remaining in the Gaza Strip, warning that the territory's health system is 'collapsing.' The WHO said the Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital risk becoming 'non-functional' because of restrictions on aid and access routes, further damaging a health system already battered by months of war. 'There are already no hospitals functioning in the north of Gaza. Nasser and Amal are the last two functioning public hospitals in Khan Younis, where currently most of the population is living,' the UN agency said in a statement on X. 'Without them, people will lose access to critical health services,' it said. The WHO added that closure of the two hospitals would eliminate 490 beds and reduce Gaza's hospital capacity to less than 1,400 beds — 40 percent below pre-war levels — for a population of two million people. The WHO said the hospitals have not been told to evacuate but lie within or just outside an Israeli-declared evacuation zone announced on June 2. Israeli authorities have told Gaza's health ministry that access routes to the two hospitals will be blocked, the WHO said. As a result, it will be 'difficult, if not impossible' for medical staff and new patients to reach them, it said. 'If the situation further deteriorates, both hospitals are at high risk of becoming non-functional, due to movement restrictions, insecurity, and the inability of WHO and partners to resupply or transfer patients,' the organization said. The WHO said both hospitals are already operating 'above their capacity,' with patients suffering life-threatening injuries arriving amid a 'dire shortage of essential medicines and medical supplies.' It warned the closure of Nasser and Al-Amal would have dire consequences for patients in need of surgical care, intensive care, blood bank and transfusion services, cancer care and dialysis. After nearly 20 months of war triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Gaza is mired in one of the world's gravest humanitarian crises, with civilians enduring relentless bombardment, mass displacement and severe hunger.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store