By Daniel Otera
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is confronting a looming salary deficit of more than $500 million over the next two years a shortfall its Director-General says could impact staffing and core health operations globally.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made this disclosure during the high-level opening session of the 78th World Health Assembly held on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Addressing delegates from member states under the theme “One World for Health”, Dr Ghebreyesus stated that WHO is currently implementing far-reaching austerity measures aimed at preserving the organisation’s financial stability.
“We are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than $500 million,” he said. “The Secretariat has taken a range of measures to curtail costs in travel, procurement, recruitment, early retirement and more. These measures have helped to narrow the gap, but still, there is no alternative but to reduce the size of our workforce.”
The WHO boss explained that while prior budget reforms helped avert a deeper crisis generating savings of nearly $300 million the situation remains dire unless member states approve the next round of funding increases.
“This week, I ask you to approve the next increase, to make another step towards securing the long-term financial sustainability and independence of your WHO,” he urged.
“Already, the first increase has made a huge difference. If it had not happened, our current financial situation would be much worse – $300 million worse.”
Cutting Back to Stay Afloat
The organisation’s strategic response involves not just expenditure control but a structural realignment that touches the heart of WHO operations. Dr Ghebreyesus confirmed that the WHO is undergoing a significant reshaping of its executive structure, which includes reducing the executive management team from 14 members to seven, and shrinking the number of departments from 76 to 34.
“Some Member States called the new structure ‘lean and mean’. I think it’s more focused, and it could be more impactful as well,” he said. “Last week, I announced our new executive management team, and in the coming weeks, we will decide which directors will lead which departments.”
Acknowledging the human cost of the restructuring, Dr Ghebreyesus described the decisions involved as “extremely difficult,” both for himself and for the WHO’s internal management.
See also: 2027: Zamfara APC demands arrest of PDP women leader over alleged threats
“Let’s be clear: a reduced workforce means a reduced scope of work,” he cautioned. “The Organisation simply cannot do everything Member States have asked it to do with the resources available.”
According to WHO’s proposed financial plan, the programme budget for the 2026–2027 biennium will be slashed from an initial projection of $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion representing a 21 per cent reduction. Despite this cut, the leadership expressed cautious optimism.
“Assuming you approve the increase in assessed contributions, and thanks to the Investment Round, we are confident that we have already secured more than $2.6 billion, or 60 per cent of the funding for the next biennium,” Dr Ghebreyesus noted. “That leaves an anticipated budget gap of more than $1.7 billion. We know that in the current landscape, mobilising that sum will be a challenge.”
WHO’s financial architecture has long relied on a mix of assessed contributions from member states and voluntary donations, which often come with earmarks for specific programmes. Critics have argued that this funding model undermines the agency’s flexibility, especially in responding to global health emergencies such as pandemics or outbreaks in fragile states.
To address longstanding concerns over financial instability, the World Health Organisation (WHO) embarked on a funding reform initiative in 2022 aimed at gradually increasing the share of predictable financing through assessed contributions from member states. The reform, approved during the 75th World Health Assembly, set a target for assessed contributions to cover 50 per cent of WHO’s core budget by the 2030–2031 financial cycle.
At the time, such contributions accounted for only 16 per cent of the approved programme budget for 2020–2021. The WHO had historically depended heavily on voluntary contributions, many of which were earmarked for specific programmes leading to significant misalignment between strategic priorities and available resources.
According to the organisation, this new strategy was designed to strengthen financial autonomy, reduce overdependence on conditional funding, and enable the WHO to respond more effectively to global health threats. As outlined in its 2022 official announcement, the reform also included exploring a replenishment mechanism and strengthening internal governance, transparency, and efficiency.
However, the projected salary gap of over $500 million for the 2026–2027 biennium now casts doubt on the long-term viability of that reform. Unless member states recommit to sustainable financing targets, the momentum achieved over the past two years could be undermined, potentially weakening WHO’s operational capacity.
“We are doing this reduction carefully, to protect the quality of our work, and ensure that we are positioned to emerge from this crisis stronger, more empowered and more independent,” he explained.
“As you know, we have been engaging in a major structural realignment, guided by an in-depth analysis of priorities, deliberate and conscious,”he added.
The outcome of this week’s World Health Assembly deliberations is expected to determine whether WHO will receive the policy backing and financial commitments necessary to move forward.
