Latest news with #memberstates
Japan Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
WHO restructures and cuts budget after U.S. withdrawal
The World Health Organization tried to stabilize its finances at its annual assembly which ended on Tuesday, but still remains well short of reaching its already reduced target. Hit by the withdrawal of its biggest donor, the United States, the WHO trimmed its already smaller 2026-2027 budget from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion. The U.N. health agency's program budget for 2024-2025 was $6.8 billion. The slimmer budget plan was approved during the World Health Assembly, which serves as the WHO's decision-making body. But a funding gap of some $1.7 billion remains. How WHO funding works WHO budgets run in two-year cycles. Founded in 1948, the agency initially received all its funding through "assessed contributions": nations' membership fees calculated according to wealth and population. However, the WHO became increasingly reliant on "voluntary contributions," which only go toward outcomes specified by the donor. By the 2020-2021 cycle, assessed contributions represented only 16% of the approved program budget. And the organization had long been over-reliant on voluntary funding from a few major donors. 2026-2027 budget In 2022, member states agreed to increase their assessed contributions to represent 50% of the WHO's core budget by the 2030-2031 cycle at the latest — giving the WHO more stable, flexible and predictable income streams. They increased membership fees by 20% as part of the 2024-2025 budget. At this year's assembly, countries approved another 20% increase in membership fees, which should represent an additional $90 million in revenue per year. They also endorsed the WHO's 2026-2027 budget of $4.2 billion. "Your approval of the next increase in assessed contributions was a strong vote of confidence in your WHO at this critical time," the organization's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday in closing the assembly. Most of that money is already assured. "We have now secured 60% of our base budget for 2026-2027; a remarkable result in today's financial climate," said Hanan Balkhy, the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean regional director. But that means the agency is still $1.7 billion short, despite the reduced budget. Pledges At a pledging event last week, donors put in an additional $210 million for the 2025-2028 investment round, supporting the WHO's base budget. That included $80 million from Switzerland, $57 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, $13.5 million from Sweden and $6 million from Qatar. "In a challenging climate for global health, these funds will help us to preserve and extend our life-saving work," said Tedros. United States Upon returning to office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump started the one-year process for leaving the WHO, and had frozen virtually all U.S. foreign aid. The United States was traditionally the WHO's largest donor. Washington's departure, and its refusal to pay its membership fees for 2024 and 2025, has left the WHO reeling financially. Washington did not attend the World Health Assembly. However, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a video message in which he branded the organization as bloated and moribund, and urged other countries to "consider joining us" in creating new institutions instead. Kennedy said the U.N. agency was under undue influence from China, gender ideology and the pharmaceutical industry. Reorganization The budget cuts have forced the WHO to reorganize. It is reducing its executive management team from 14 to seven due to the dramatic U.S. funding cuts. The number of departments is being reduced from 76 to 34. The WHO has not yet announced any large-scale layoffs, unlike other U.N. agencies.
Al Jazeera
20-05-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
WHO members adopt landmark pandemic agreement in US absence
Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) have adopted an agreement intended to improve preparedness for future pandemics, but the absence of the United States casts doubt on the treaty's effectiveness. After three years of negotiations, the legally binding pact was adopted by the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Tuesday. WHO member countries welcomed its passing with applause. The accord aims to prevent a repeat of the disjointed response and international disarray that surrounded the COVID-19 pandemic by improving coordination, surveillance and access to medicines during any future pandemics. 'It's an historic day,' WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the vote. The agreement's text was finalised last month after multiple rounds of tense negotiations. 'The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration and commitment of our member states to adopt the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement,' Tedros said in a statement. 'The agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action. It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the world from future pandemic threats. It is also a recognition by the international community that our citizens, societies and economies must not be left vulnerable to again suffer losses like those endured during COVID-19,' he added. The agreement aims to better detect and combat pandemics by focusing on greater international coordination and surveillance and more equitable access to vaccines and treatments. The negotiations grew tense amid disagreements between wealthy and developing countries with the latter feeling cut off from access to vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Esperance Luvindao, Namibia's health minister and chairwoman of a committee that paved the way for the agreement's adoption, said COVID-19 inflicted huge costs 'on lives, livelihoods and economies'. 'We, as sovereign states, have resolved to join hands as one world together, so we can protect our children, elders, front-line health workers and all others from the next pandemic,' Luvindao added. 'It is our duty and responsibility to humanity.' The US, traditionally the WHO's top donor, was not part of the final stages of the agreement process after the Trump administration announced the US pullout from the WHO and funding for the agency in January. US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr slammed the WHO as 'moribund' during the annual assembly. 'I urge the world's health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organisation as a wake-up call,' he said in a video shown at the meeting in Geneva. 'We've already been in contact with like-minded countries, and we encourage others to consider joining us.' Kennedy accused the WHO of failing to learn from the lessons of the pandemic. 'It has doubled down with the pandemic agreement, which will lock in all of the dysfunction of the WHO pandemic response. … We're not going to participate in that,' he said. The treaty's effectiveness will face doubts without the US, which poured billions into ensuring pharmaceutical companies develop COVID-19 vaccines quickly. Countries face no penalties if they ignore it, a common issue in international law. Countries have until May 2026 to thrash out the details of the agreement's pathogen access and benefit-sharing (PABS) mechanism. The PABS mechanism deals with sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential and then sharing the benefits derived from them, such as vaccines, tests and treatments. Once the PABS system is finalised, countries can then ratify the agreement. Once 60 do so, the treaty will then enter into force.
Bloomberg
19-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
EU's €150 Billion Defense Fund Receives Preliminary Approval
The European Union's 27 member states gave initial approval to a €150 billion ($169 billion) defense fund that will distribute money to countries looking to invest in security capabilities such as ammunition, drones and the protection of critical infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund is expected to receive formal approval next week, said one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
EU To Announce Major Changes To Asylum Seeker Deportation System
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is expected to announce its proposals to reform the rules around what is and is not considered a safe country to deport people to. In particular, the reforms are expected to remove the requirement that a deportee have a connection to the country of deportation, something that would mark a major shift in policy up until now. It is also expected to be announced that a deportation process can begin or continue even when an appeal is in process. The announcement comes on the heels of proposed revisions to the EU's Returns Directive, which laid the groundwork for individual member states to pursue so-called 'return hubs' - effectively a system in which compliant non-EU countries would be used as the site for deportation centers, outside of the EU's jurisdiction. Various EU member states are eager to get their own scheme going, taking after the existing but legally fraught Italy-Albania deal, and the U.K. is known to be pursuing a similar scheme of its own. The expected EU revisions are a key step in making such return hubs a reality, as they will remove the obligation for states to only deport people back to somewhere they have a connection (where they were born or had been resident previously, for instance). This 'connection criteria' is considered critical in humanitarian policy, as without it someone can be deported to a country and situation completely foreign to them and face myriad challenges to their life and wellbeing. With these reforms, the EU 'is paving the way for migrants to be removed and deported basically anywhere, putting people in danger whilst enriching security companies invested in the business of deportation,' says Sarah Chander, Director of Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice. Advocates for the removal of the 'connection criteria' essentially argue that given the existing human rights, refugee and humanitarian frameworks, European states are unable to deport people who have had their asylum applications rejected, pose a security threat, or are in some other way considered undesirable. This is compounded by the refusal of many countries of origin to accept people who have been sent back against their will, as well as various other logistical problems, especially since the pandemic. The EU is also expected to announce that, where previously an appeal to a deportation order would see that deportation suspended until the process is complete, states will be able to deport people even when there is an ongoing appeal. This raises myriad procedural issues, not least of them being the problem of how someone who has been unfairly deported could seek redress and return once outside the EU's jurisdiction. This revision has been strongly condemned by human rights and civil society groups, as well as members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The proposed revisions to speed up deportation would amount to 'tearing international law apart,' said Spanish MEP and human rights activist Estrella Galan. "We firmly oppose this migration policy, dictated by the far right, that aims to seal off Europe at any cost – even at the expense of human rights.'
Associated Press
13-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
UN chief pleads with countries to pay their share for peacekeeping, points to financial problems
BERLIN (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told countries that the world body's peacekeeping operation is 'only as strong as member states' commitment to it' as he pleaded with them Tuesday to pay their share. The United Nations' peackeeping department currently leads 11 operations, in countries including Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus and Kosovo. The budget for nine of those operations during the fiscal year that ends on June 30 totals $5.6 million, 8.2% lower than a year earlier. Each of the U.N.'s 193 member countries is legally obliged to pay its share toward peacekeeping. Guterres argued that, with a budget 'representing a tiny fraction of global military spending — around one half of one per cent — U.N. Peacekeeping remains one of the most effective and cost-effective tools to build international peace and security.' 'But it's only as strong as member states' commitment to it,' he added at the opening of a two-day, German-hosted conference of ministers to discuss the future of peacekeeping. 'Unfortunately, peacekeeping operations have been facing serious liquidity problems. It is absolutely essential that all member states respect their financial obligations, paying their contributions in full and on time.' Guterres didn't offer details of the problems, but acknowledged that 'these are tough times for the financing of our work across the board.' More broadly, the U.N. has been scrambling to respond to funding cuts for aid operations from its biggest donor, the United States, under President Donald Trump's administration. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that his country, like many others, 'is prepared to pledge additional resources' for peacekeeping. But he said there should also be an effort to make missions 'more efficient and more focused' through clearer mandates, cutting back on bureaucracy and avoiding duplication.
