By Ayo Kehinde
World leaders and donors have pledged $170 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO), bolstering its 2025–2028 base budget as the United States prepares to exit.
The donations, announced on Tuesday at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, reaffirmed global support for WHO’s Investment Round (IR).
The IR is raising funds for WHO’s strategy for global health, the Fourteenth General Programme of Work, which can save an additional 40 million lives over the next four years.
Member States approved an increase in Assessed Contributions, adding a separate US$90 million a year of income and marking another important step on WHO’s journey towards sustainable financing.
“I am grateful to every Member State and partner that has pledged towards the investment round. In a challenging climate for global health, these funds will help us to preserve and extend our life-saving work. They show that multilateralism is alive and well”, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said.
The meeting featured pledges from Angola, Cambodia, China, Gabon, Mongolia, Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, ELMA Philanthropies (with the WHO Foundation), Fondation Botnar, Laerdal Global Health (with the WHO Foundation), the Nippon Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation announced an additional US$13 million and committed to further increases in funding.
Among the announcements, at least US$170 million is for the Investment Round – the funding supports WHO’s base budget from 2025–2028. Eight of the donors included a flexible contribution to WHO, the most valuable sort of funding, and four were first-time donors.
Through the One World Movement, almost 8,000 people from across the world have signed on as ‘Member Citizens’, contributing almost US$600,000 in donations, many monthly – a powerful expression of global solidarity and an affirmation that every voice counts.
US President Donald Trump had in January signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the WHO, citing its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises.
While the withdrawal will take effect in 12 months, Trump said the US would seize all financial contributions to the agency’s $6.8 billion 2024–2025 budget.
Trump criticised the WHO for failing to operate independently of what he called “inappropriate political influence” from its member states. He also took issue with the financial burden on the US, the organisation’s largest contributor, providing about 18 per cent of its total funding.
